when life gives you lemons, make lemonade

I am in exile from my woodstove! It is very sad, and I think of it a lot...

However, I am rather enjoying the sunshine.

Now, as it was coming up to Christmas I decided I needed a tree and I managed to persuade my anti-festivity spouse that a lemon tree on the terrace would be acceptable. We found a garden centre locally with a range of lovely trees on special offer... I noticed that the leaves were a little yellow but reckoned that a bit of feeding would set that right.

It was also dripping with lemons.

We brought it home and set it up on the terrace, which is five floors up on the top of an apartment block on a hill, overlooking the sea and the town below.

It got windy. Very windy. The next morning, there were six agents down... (we'd been watching James Bond. Agent Lemon, geddit? Never mind)

What to do with an unexpected glut of lemons? What would I do if I had a woodstove....?

And so I devised a recipe for lemonade, which I made - shudder - in the microwave - but which would be MUCH BETTER done on a woodstove.

First, juice the lemons (I had to do this with a fork, as the kitchen in this apartment is severely lacking in equipment). Set the lemon juice aside.

Then warm up the lemon shells in some more water, as illustrated. Obviously you can only do this is you have untreated lemons. Do not boil. This would be ideal on a woodburner (boo hoo hoo), but as it was I gave them three minutes in the microwave, and then another two following inspection.

Allow this to cool. Then pour the water off into a pan (or, in this case, a microwaveable bowl) and add sugar to taste. I like my lemonade sharp, but you may prefer yours sweeter. Squeeze the shells to extract maximum flavour and pulp.

This will make your syrup. Place in the microwave for three minutes, check, stir, and put back for another three minutes. OH HOW MUCH SIMPLER this would be on a woodburner...

When the syrup has boiled and cooled you add the lemon juice and decant into a bottle or jug. I dilute it one part lemonade to five parts fizzy water, but you may prefer it stronger or weaker... a dash of rum is delicious too...