From My Home to Yours: 3/28/25

 From My Home to Yours

3/28/25

~ When opportunity comes knocking ...  ~

... we take advantage of it and that's what we did when we were given the opportunity to purchase a box of lemons fresh from Florida.

I set to work almost immediately preserving them ...

(They were beautiful, a really good size, fresh and in good condition.  I was very pleased with the entire box.)

I soaked them in a solution of water, vinegar (1/4 cup) and salt (2 Tablespoons) for at least 30 minutes but no more than an hour.

Here's how I'm preserving them ...

make lemon zest and dehydrate it for use in baking, etc ...

cut into wedges, flash freeze and then bag up for use in water, tea, etc ...

juice some and freeze juice in ice cube trays (2 Tablespoons per cube) for use in cooking, canning, making salad dressing and many other things ...

lacto-fermented some for use in making salad dressing, roasting chicken (stick one in the cavity of a chicken), etc ...

slice, dry and powder some for use in baking and creating salad dressings.  It can also be used as a substitute for lemon zest (1 teaspoon lemon powder for 1 tablespoon lemon zest)

and make some fermented lemon, ginger honey for medicinal purposes.

There were 115 lemons in all, and I was thrilled to get every single one of them.  

Preserving lemons this week was not even on my radar of things to do, but when opportunity knocks, it's wise to take advantage of it if at all possible!

Do you preserve lemons, if so, how?  How and what do you use your preserved lemons for?

I've been letting some 'old' bread air dry for several days waiting until I could find time to turn it into breadcrumbs.  I did that this week by running the dried bread pieces through my 40-year-old food processor first and then adding a garlic spice mix and an Italian season mix to the breadcrumbs for seasoning.  Volia ... I was able to add 4 quarts of seasoned breadcrumbs to my pantry.  Waste not, want not!

In the garden our garlic is growing well.  Toward the end of May or first part of June, we will harvest it and replant this raised bed with something else.  I'll use the garlic as an ingredient in herbal remedies, as an ingredient in spices mixes, to make minced garlic and for cooking purposes.  And of course, I'll save a few of the biggest and best cloves for replanting in the fall.

I needed to open up 2 of my plastic milk jugs this week as the seeds had germinated and grown into plants that were outgrowing the container.  I'm thrilled to have added the skill of winter sowing to my gardening skill sets.  If you don't have a greenhouse or if your greenhouse needs some repairs, like ours, or if you don't have a grow light setup, this plastic jug method is another option and as you can see, it works, too!

I stitched up 4 more drawstring bags for an upcoming project.

One morning we needed to run errands and when I went to get in the vehicle, I found these flowers waiting for me in my seat.  Hubby had cut them from our camellia bush and put them in my seat for me to find.  Hubby knows that I like flowers, and he does this type of thing for me whenever we have flowers in bloom.   It's the little things and yes, I know how blessed I am!

I hope you've found something in my ramblings this week that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Until the next time ...

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You might be interested in my other blogs ...

Grandma's Got a Sewing Machine 

From This Heart of Mine