Easy Lemonade without squeezing

[Stravinsk]

Normally lemonade is made by cutting the fruit and either squeezing the juice out of it or using something to grate the lemon to extract the juice.

There's actually an easier way if one is willing to forgo having lemonade now with a little work vs having lemonade every day with practically none.

My neighbor and I trade fruit, and I get his lemons. They come in bulk so I have to do something with them before they eventually spoil. Some of them get cut up and frozen.

The others I use to make lemonade I can drink every day. Here's how:

Cut up and slice the lemons into wedges that will fit into a glass jar. Make sure to cut off any stem connected to a wedge, as this is likely to cause it to float. You want wedges that sink in water.

Fill the jar with the lemon wedges and completely cover it with water, so that all are submersed. It's best to try to get as much water in as possible. Then seal the jar.

In a few days, you'll have strong lemon water. At this point it's usually too strong so I dilute what I pour off to drink. After pouring off, simply refill the jar again as in last step. This can be done multiple times and gradually the strength of the lemon water will fade.

One of the benefits of this method is that you not only get the juice of the lemon, but the nutrients from the skin as well, and the skins are much higher in Vitamin C. Commercially bought may contain remnants of any sprays, so best to wash them first.

 

[Lamb]

That's a really good tip. About how many lemons do you need for a jar?

 

[Stravinsk]

That's a really good tip. About how many lemons do you need for a jar?

Entirely depends on the size of the jar. I do 2 jars at the moment. One gives me a glass of lemonade a day (more in the early stages when it's stronger and I dilute), and the other the next day and so forth until the lemon taste becomes so faint it's time to do it again. I've been drinking at least one glass a day for a week now.

I suppose one could improve it further by using a fairly large jar, wait several days then pour the water from it into another and refill the jar with lemon wedges. This way you have a lemon concentrate solution to dilute to your taste for several days while the wedges in the larger jar build up the lemon saturation in the water.

Just make sure there's no wedges floating above the water, exposed to air. I noticed that when there was (the wedge had a bit of stem on it), some white bubbles formed. I drained that lot and cut the stem and refilled the jar and it worked fine again.