Juicy Gossip of a Potential Scandal

My arms feel as though they are forever zesting and squeezing lemons and yet the lemon tree is not reducing its production.  The lemon tree is covered in blossoms, young green lemons and ripe yellow lemons all at the same time.

When I found an Italian recipe for limoncello that uses the zest of fifteen lemons I decided to try it. My problem is that the lemons on our tree are enormous and looks like three times the size of the lemons used in the recipe.

It poses a dilemma when a recipe asks for a number of fruit instead of a weight measurement.

On Friday evening I bought a bottle of vodka at the local bottle store having discovering that I had forgotten the new stock in Cape Town. When I got home and started reading the three pages of instructions for the recipe, I discovered that I needed two bottles for this recipe.

Organic Lemons

On Saturday morning I picked the fifteen lemons, rinsed and prepared them before I went to the bottle store to buy another bottle of vodka. The lady behind the counter gave me a look of sympathy, understanding and concern. She looked as though she was thinking of not ringing up the vodka and that she needed to say something to me but decided against it and let the sale go through.

I realised then that it must look bad because I had bought a bottle of vodka the previous evening before closing time and then first thing in the morning I am back to buy another. I realised that explaining why I needed so much vodka will only make me guilty of her worst suspicions.  I decided to stop making liqueur and limoncello for the time being, before the town concludes that I have a problem.

Small towns like juicy gossip and at the moment I must look like a potential candidate for a sad but welcome distraction over tea on the strength of my buying two bottles of vodka every weekend.

First Stage of Limoncello

At home I zested the fifteen organic lemons as instructed until it looked like I had a flock of miniature shorn sheep.

Lemon Ice Cubes

After putting the lemon zest in the vodka I took it to the cellar where it needs to rest for 80 days. It seems that I will be bottling limoncello near Christmas. I decided to make ice cubes of the juice so as to have fresh lemon juice at hand whenever I need it for sorbet or something else.