Lemon Marmalade Mania

I've always wanted a lemon tree, and grape vines, and I have neither.

My bff recently rented one unit in a cute cottage duplex that has a private yard with a very fecund little lemon tree. I'm not sure what type of lemons they are, I'm guessing they might be Meyer lemons as the tree is quite small and the fruit is rounder and smaller than Eureka lemons (I suppose if I had taste buds that were more developed, I could taste the difference, but generally I'm not a fan of sucking on a lemon). One of the benefits of being bff's with my bff is access to that lemon tree, and I have big plans for it!

You can never have enough lemons, you use it in cooking all the time, and it is so handy in making beverages. I like keep lemon juice in an ice cube tray in the freezer, so I have lemon juice for cooking handy in case I don't have fresh lemons on hand.

Recently I've discovered yet another great way of preserving lemons - lemon marmalade! Orange marmalade is much more readily available, so it is no wonder I've never had lemon marmalade in my life and was curious. The process is simple but time consuming: prepping the lemon by washing it, removing and slicing the zest, cutting off the pith (white part underneath the zest, tastes bitter), slicing, de-seeding, cooking, and canning. It takes a whole afternoon, at least, but the end product is a sweet, golden nectar that would taste great on just about anything. I've even made a beautiful label for it, the kind that gets wrapped around the lid of the jar, not the sticker kind as I find that stickers and their glue make it a bit more cumbersome to re-use the jar. I hope my friends will be as excited about receiving them as I will be about giving them.