After a hellish week at work, I thought I'd be kicking back this weekend with the last of my Girl Scout cookies and watching a marathon of Law & Order; but I surprised myself by FINALLY getting motivated to prune the lemon tree in my backyard. With my recent abundance of lemons, I figure I could give some away to family and friends and a card with the list of handy uses for lemons collected at Hippyshopper. Take a look at more photos along with the tips after the jump!
[ A crazy find during the pruning phase: a heart-shaped lemon! ]
Anyone need lemons? No, really...and this is only a small percentage of the lemons we picked!
Handy Household Uses for Lemons from Hippyshopper:
- Remove limescale from draining board and taps - Use half a lemon to rub over stainless steel draining boards and taps. Leave a minute, rinse, and shine with a dry cloth.
- Freshen up your dishwasher - Use half a lemon and jam it onto an upright in your dishwasher. Shells fresh, helps cut grease, and has got to be more eco-friendly than those plastic lemon shaped things that you can buy to do the same job.
- Exfoliate and clean your feet - Mix up some lemon pulp and brown sugar and get rubbing. Rinse and moisturize
- Highlight your hair - Much better for you and the environment than commercial bleaches. Mix the juice of one lmeon with one teaspoon salt, and apply to hair with a comb. Get out into the sun for a couple of hours. Do some vegetable gardening, tend to your lemon tree, go for a walk, you get the picture. Don't do this too often though, it will dry your hair out
- Keep fruits from browning - Add lemon juice to freshly cut apples or pear slices to keep them from turning brown
- Repel weeds - Sprinkle lemon juice around areas in the garden to repel weeds (but not near plants you want, but cracks and such)
- Polish Copper pots - Use lemon juice plus salt to turn tarnished copper pots shiny again
- Cat Pee Repeller - If your cat has a favorite chair or sofa that it likes to pee in, make a lemon-water mix and spray it on the spot and the cat won't go there again
Nan carefully inspecting 1/10th of the lemon supply.
Got another use for a lemon? Share it with us!
I am so jealous of your lemon tree and I love the photo of Nan, she is a doll! Enjoy your crop! PS: You can use lemon halves and salt to remove soap scum from your shower tiles and tub. Just rub the half lemon in a saucer of salt and scrub away. It works great and smells sooooooo good.
view Carder's profile
Freshen up your dishwasher - Use half a lemon and jam it onto an upright in your dishwasher. Shells fresh, helps cut grease, and has got to be more eco-friendly than those plastic lemon shaped things that you can buy to do the same job.
It may smell nice but lemon juice is an acid and therefore corrosive. You probably won't notice anything after a wash or two, but after months and months of use, cleaners with lemon juice will wear at metal finishes. Your sparkly utensils will look dull, etc. For that reason, you'll find products like Oneida utensils now include a warning against citrus cleaners in the dishwasher.
view kimg924's profile
My first apartment had a pear tree, I am not a fan of pears, but lemons I could get used to. I drink tons of water and seltzer with tons of lemon! Not likely to live with a lemon tree in Boston. Yet another reason to live in sunny California, sigh.
view shayna's profile
On a recent trip to San Diego, (I too live in Boston) I was noticing the lemon trees in everyone's front and back yards...so jealous!
view millzee's profile
A heart-shaped lemon--wow! How I envy your lemons! I just bought a little tree--it will be a miracle if it survives me. That many lemons would allow you to juice them, make lemon icecubes and keep them in bags in the freezer for use throughout the summer.
view jen_g's profile
I love the scent of fresh lemons... mmm!
Though, lemon is not recommended for glassware, or so I've heard.
view SMM's profile
I'm also jealous of your prolific lemon tree! I really miss our old lemon tree in our home in CA. One of the first thing I did after moving to WA was getting a meyer lemon and pink lemon tree. They didn't do too well (fruit kept dropping) in the beginning but they are sloooowly developing fruit. I'm waiting for the temperature to stay above 40 deg at night so I can put them outside on the patio. I can't wait to get my hands on some fresh lemons! :) Both your dogs are so adorable.
view drinknbake's profile
If your garbage disposal smells funky, cut a lemon up into a few pieces, put down the disposal and run it with scalding hot water. It gets rid of any yucky odor!
Also, I rub half a lemon and some kosher salt on my wooden cutting board to get rid of stains from strawberries, sauces, etc. and freshen it up.
view anniewaits's profile
Lemons are amazing for cleaning! I second the scrubbing with 1/2 lemon dipped in salt.
But has anyone had luck with lemon as a hair highlighter? I thought that was an old wives' tale and am having serious Sun-In flashbacks...
view firecracker's profile
Is this true about cat-pee repelling? Has anyone tried it? I am always suspicious of these lists of uses for things--they seem to start with reasonable suggestions and then veer into "and it cures warts, hysteria, and blindness!" But I would love for my cat to stop peeing in inappropriate locations.
view Jenny in DC's profile
Why not just make lemon curd or better, lemoncello? You can also freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays.
If lemon juice repels weeds so well, why aren't lemon groves weed free? This isn't science.
view Palmetto's profile
Agree on the quasi limoncello (I doubt you can buy the real neat alcohol you have to water down) but anyway, take the rind off of a few (no pith though) and soak them in neat vodka until they go crispy. Then strain the vodka and put it in the freezer for a while.
Leave half of one in your fridge to get rid of any smells.
Yes you can use them to highlight hair..it just gets sticky and then goes solid when it dries in the sun. Use a spray gun but strain all the pulp and pips first lest they clog the mechanism.
view HongKonger's profile
Too bad your lemon was not shaped like Jesus or Mary or else you could have sold it on eBay.
I use lemon slices to freshen my garbage dispoal when it gets funky.
view orangejuce's profile