Daffodils and homemade limoncello

The first daffodil opened this past weekend. There it stood proud and yellow next to the patch of blue muscari flowers. The pots of flower bulbs next to the steps leading to the parking terrace, offer me a first glimpse into the progress of the flowering season. This, in the midst of the otherwise quiet wintertime at Towerwater.

On the opposite end of the garden, yellow lemons etched against a blue Karoo sky, echo the colours in the pots. The abundance of lemons make for a bright and happy spot in the sleepy garden. It was evident that we needed to use a lot of lemons over the weekend. The tree needs a breather. It is already covered in a new crop of small green lemons.

We could use many in the making of the marmalade. But that alone was not going to be enough. I decided that the best thing to do with the excess lemon crop, was to make limoncello with the peels and to use the juice to make traditional lemonade. Two very refreshing drinks for hot summer days and balmy evenings.

My problem is that our lemons are much bigger than the average lemon I see people using in recipes. I decided anyway to use the 12 lemons that the recipe for homemade limoncello called for. More lemon zest can only be good for limoncello.

I suppose I could have frozen the lemon juice to make lemon granita in summer. But, I opted for old-fashioned lemonade. It felt like an old-fashioned weekend. On the stove there was a constant stream of pots of marmalade cooking away. The dreamy aroma of hot oranges lazily wafting up the hearth chimney. The kitchen was overflowing with baskets of citrus fruit everywhere, as if the garden had exploded there with its green, yellow and orange fruit.

Peeling the zest off the oversized lemons, covered my hands with a soft yellow citrus oil. The freshly peeled lemons bounced into the porcelain sink, looking like fat little shorn sheep. The old kitchen must have experienced this activity many times before in its life. It just felt right. Nostalgia became a luxurious memory coated in citrus oil.

I am happy that the bright yellow daffodils are starting to flower. I am equally satisfied with the jar of homemade limoncello and bottles of old-fashioned lemonade in the cellar.