Freezing lemons?

[carolg]

I have several delish Meyer Lemons that I bought at WF. Now I want to keep these around forever, but really however long I can without keeping them in the refrigerator for a long time.

So got any ideas to keeping these around? Dehydrate? Freeze skins, juice lemon then freeze? Your suggestions are welcome. They sure have a fabulous taste too besides a bright orange skin that looks like an orange.

Thanks.
carol

[Ilse W.]

What I do with lemons when I have too many (from somebody's tree or organic ones from the store) is juice them, skin and all, and freeze them in ice cube trays. Once frozen, I transfer the cubes into baggies. I figure 1 large cube is the equivalent of 1/2 to 1 lemon. It's easy to throw them into a juice or smoothie, or let them thaw and use in recipes. I wish I had a bunch of lemons. I used to live in San Jose, CA and had tons of lemons available. Here in the Pacific NW it's kind of hard to come by a bunch of them without spending a fortune. My son works for Southwest Airlines and I can fly them for free. I think I'm going to start making runs down into the Bay Area just to load up on cheap lemons and avocados, lol.:D:D

[Rrose]

I wash the lemons (with the skins on, of course!) really really well first.
Then, I simply put them into the freezer whole. You can use a container to hold them in the freezer with or just use (like I do) a plastic (I know, not good to use, shame shame!!) bag with a tie to keep them from getting lost in the frozen abyss called my freezer.

Just thaw for half an hour on the counter and voila!! Freshly frozen thawed lemon juice.

P.S. Somettimes, after washing them, I will halve them or quarter them then freeze them. I figure half a T. per quarter, or, 2 T. per lemon.

[carolg]

So easy and thanks so much. I buy them from the store when I see the Meyer lemons. They are super worth the extra bucks. Now if I had a lemon tree or a friend in CA that may share I would love it even more. In the meantime at least I have the $ to buy them from WF. Thanks.
carolg

[Rrose]

You're welcome!!! My pleasure!:D