A garden where lemons grow

We have been blessed by a bountiful supply of lemons from the garden. The lemon tree is such a generous tree. Bearing fruit for most of the year, it supplies an important ingredient for most of our meals. From starters, soups and main courses, to desserts and cocktails, fresh organic lemon often features in each.

Lemons add or lift the flavours of any dish. Although covered in fruit, our lemon tree began looking very unhappy. Coincidently, we decided to transplant the strawberries to a new bed as where they had been growing alongside the lemon tree, they too were looking unhappy.

On lifting the strawberries, we soon discovered that most of the bed had become matted with the roots of a poplar tree flourishing in a neighbouring property. We transplanted the strawberries to a ‘safe’ bed. Recovering the original bed meant the removal of the invasive tree roots and applying a generous feeding of compost and organic chicken manure. It was decided to install a battery of eight large compost bins in the recovering bed. This, it is hoped, will further assist the natural recovery of the soil.

Removing the poplar roots from around the lemon tree proved more difficult. We decided to trench dig along the boundary and chop off all the invasive roots. The process of rescuing the lemon tree commenced with relieving the undernourished tree of all its many lemons. With a basket of lemons, the scene was set for some trusted lemon recipes. I decided to make pickled lemons. I enjoy using them in middle eastern dishes. My other ‘go-to’ recipe for lemons is Limoncello. This is a refreshing and much enjoyed summer aperitif.

While ‘Operation Lemon tree Rescue’ is in full swing, at least we will still have some reminders of its fruit. We take care not to waste any of the fruit. Both the peel and the whole fruit get used.   

On a very stormy weekend, I could push my concerns for our favourite lemon tree to the back of my mind as I relaxed in the big library chair reading my latest book acquisition, on lemon trees.

I miss going to bookshops and browsing for hours before deciding on which to buy. With hardly any bookshops left in central Cape Town, shopping for books has become a very one-dimensional online experience. All I have to go on to make an informed choice, is a picture and a description. Gone is that first meeting with the book on a bookshelf. Touching it, reading the introduction, looking at the chapters, and marveling at the images; and when you are completely seduced, taking it to the cashier where your book is placed in a paper bag ready to go home with you.

Online shopping is so impersonal. Furthermore, I don’t like surprises where books are concerned. When I came across the book ‘The land where lemons grow’ by Helen Attlee, online, I was intrigued by the title. After reading some reviews, I decided to place an order. The book was available in paperback from most online stores, but I still prefer my books in hardcover, if I can get one. 

I placed my special order for a hardcover copy with an online store. After a four week wait, my book arrived. I was pleasantly surprised. Helena Attlee has written a book that seduced me from the first chapter. She combines travel writing with history, recipes, horticulture and art. Reading the book, gives me a new perspective on Italy's cultural, moral, culinary and political past, and all of it through the story of lemons.

Reading the book makes me want to go back to Florence and visit the Citrus Garden at Castello, one of the oldest country residences of the Medici family having been acquired in 1477.

The book is a pleasure. The experience of preserving the freshly picked lemons was enlivened as the fragrance of lemon oil hung about me in the old kitchen. I pictured Helen Attlee’s prose. Preparing some of the book’s recipes, brings an element of the experience of the writer from the pages into my pots.

I enjoyed reading about the horticulturist’s success in saving some of the more than 100- year old trees in the gardens of Castello. It serves as an inspiration to save our lemon tree. The importance of my dream of having a garden with Bergamots, Citron and other fruit trees like the Mispel (Medlar), that were so much a part of historic gardens, was confirmed after reading this delicious book. Now I need to find a bigger garden to accommodate them all!

“A miracle is hushed; all passions are swept aside. Even the poor know that richness, the fragrance of the lemon trees.” -  The Lemon Trees, Eugenio Montale