02.06.20 Michael's Bee Powered Lemons

Our neighbor Michael is saving the bees. Well, not all of them, but at least the swarms that are lucky enough to find their way to his backyard. He doesn’t even do it for the honey, he just wants them to have a safe place to set up their hive and get to work on pollinating all of our fruit trees around the neighborhood. Watching a bee hive, 4-5 feet away, on a sunny day is magical. The humming of the bees almost puts me to sleep. I’m thinking of setting up my own set of stacked wine boxes to see if a swarm will find us too. Michael’s citrus trees are exploding with fruit these days, in no small part thanks to the bees. He sent me away with a huge bag of goodies and I thought now is the time to finally make Turkish preserved lemons.

Preserved lemons:

  1. Cut on both ends of about 8 lemons for a quart size glass jar.

  2. Cut the lemons length wise in quarters, leaving the last 1/2 inch intact. 

  3. Rub the lemons in kosher salt

  4. Push the lemons into jar with a wooden spoon, trying to squeeze as many as you can in the jar. 

  5. Add some more salt and lemon juice after every layer and on the very top and seal.

  6. Store in a cupboard for a week. Give the jar a shake now and again to disperse the juice and salt.

Christine Foerster