I've not seen this before here, lemons sold with their stems and leaves on. Large, rather uneven, a little rough and dirty compared with the featureless clones sold in nets, they beguiled me into buying them very easily - they were inexpensive and I needed lemons anyway.
Taking a leaf between your palms and rubbing it rewards you with a scent of lemon peel and petitgrain.
But it's easy to see why they don't often sell them with the stems on; the thorns are quite fierce. They spiked me a couple of times and tore the bag they came in. Unfriendly things, on the whole lemons, thorny and sour to the taste, yet we treasure them anyway.
16 comments:
Have always loved lemons, ate the slices as a child, still will on occasion. Once exposed to Greek food, I began to use them in cooking. Lemons make it all better. They demand respect, of course.
Okay...now, talk about voluptuous - that eighth photo is downright pornographic!
I love the look, the taste and the aroma of lemons. And I'm loving these images, Lucy. They are wonderful treats for my winter-weary eyes (even though the worst of winter - knock wood - seems to have forgotten us here).
I love lemons, too, and we'll taste some tomorrow when SWMBO makes her famous chicken piccata.
Lucy! You can be deliciously naughty. Nice to read this post in the snowswirly weather we're having here. There's a sexy English Roast in the oven as I type ...
I had no idea they had thorns! Any idea where the lemons were grown?
Ooh, lovely and sexy too! I don't remember thorns the one and only time decades ago that I picked some lemons off a tree in a friend's garden in Los Angeles, in February! Maybe some varieties are thorn free. I've always wanted to grow a potted variety in my solarium but I think it's too cold and lacking sunlight during our winters.
Love, LOVE that new banner, especially paired with the first photo of lemons.
i have potted Meyer lemons in the cold "sun" room of the house and nothing is more wonderful than the perfume of the flowers, then the lemons themselves. These Meyers are much more civil. No thorns.
They look beautiful (and I also love the lemony smell). But that thorn at the end, up close, makes me think of medieval weapons.
And there's that curious (Caribbean?) song:
Lemon tree, very pretty,
And the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the lemon
Is impossible to eat.
A covert campaign to discourage people from G&Ts and to encourage rum punch
Love these photos. I can taste the lemon juice just looking at them. The last time I saw lemons like this was in the Grand Central market (a gorgeous market of many vendors attached to Grand Central Station in New York City) and I stood beside the basket admiring them for the longest time. - alison
lemons...it must be teat time!
Hi Lucy....just followed the link to "a river of stones"! doesn't seem really YOU somehow?
Thank you very much.
Now what's all this about sex? There I was innocently photographing a few lemons...
Apparently lemons are normally thorny, but many of the modern hybrids have had them bred out. These certainly are very flavourful, anyway.
Anonymous - I tried doing River of Stones for a week or so this month but found that, just now at least, no, it isn't really me! However, it seemed somehow rather churlish to remove the link while the project was still going on, as it is a wonderful idea and there have been some really marvellous contributions to it, which rather made me feel a lack in myself, but there we are. As January is coming to an end I'll take it down now.
A home is not a home, without a lemon tree. But limes will do, at a pinch.
My mouth is puckering in anticipation just looking at these beautiful photos! Where did they come from, Lucy? Nice? or further afield. The ones we get like that are often from Nice. But more expensive than the 'normal' leafless ones...
Yesterday I had a frozen fresh lime drink... heaven.
I knew someone in Spain 50 years ago who used to suck lemons and eat them as though they were oranges. But they were local lemons in Cartagena and "muy rico".
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