Have a Cup of Tea!

Lemons......limes.....lemons.....limes!  Whatever citrus fruit grew on the new trees back behind the house, they were great!  To be honest, I am beginning to think that these things are neither lemons nor limes but some blend of the two.  Yes, we started with both lemon and lime trees but then a few years ago, the things froze.  The small trees died and without my son's insistence, I would have yanked them all from the ground.  "Give them time." he kept saying.  "Give them time."  So I gave them time, lots of time, several years of time to be exact.  Then this past year, blooms!  Lovely lemony, limey blooms!  Then tiny fruit!  Lots of little dark green lemon/limes.  I was ecstatic!  Later, as they grew, I questioned the type of the fruit as they both looked the same.  One kind reader suggested that I scratch the skin just a bit and smell the fruit.  How smart!  I did just that!  Some definitely had a lemon smell while others had a more lime smell.  The "Aha!" moment came when I realized that the suggestion was merely brilliant!  Then my son, Michael, scratched another fruit.  The old scratch and sniff test was sort of fun but he informed me that the fruit right next to my lemon smelled more like a lime.  Ok, so perhaps the trees froze down below the graft line and what came back is some mixed up fruit..sort of a fruit salad on one tree.    Well, I decided that it did not really matter to me what they were.  I would use them regardless.

With the coming of all this Arctic air, the fruit would be far safer in my kitchen than out in the orchard.  Grapefruit, oranges and mystery fruit were all picked and stowed away in bins.  They had to wait until I had a bit of time to spend home-canning.  Always before, I have made marmalade with most of the citrus fruit.  Some of the grapefruit and Satsumas were canned as slices but the majority of the rest was chopped and cooked into the most delightful of biscuit-toppings!  Then, again, I have never had quite so many lemons (or limes) before so I was not sure how that was going to work.  I talked with my daughter about the dilemma and we came up with a most interesting plan.  I was to make "tea flavoring".  I drink a lot of herbal tea and always sweeten it with local honey.  Lemon slices and fresh ginger root are always my "go to" flavors.  Our idea was to combine the three and can it.  Later, when I make tea, I could "sweeten" it with this mixture.  This was a breeze to make since I had the citrus fruit, plenty of fresh ginger in the garden and quarts of local honey on the shelf.  Michael helped me to "zest" the fruit.  After he removed the outer peelings, I threw those in the large jelly-making pot and covered them with water.  These were put on to a slow boil.  Most of the pith and all of the seeds were removed and discarded.  The now peeled fruit was diced and tossed in with the boiling zest.  After this cooked down a bit, I added a quart jar of honey and a good cup of grated ginger root. (I love having a ready supply of fresh ginger root in the garden!)  Everything was cooked some more while I washed and sterilized the jars and prepared the lids.  After just a bit, nine jars of tea flavoring sat on the table cooling.

Today, on a whim, I sampled the mixture!  It was incredible!  What a wonderful thing this will be!  On some frigid, wintry night, I can have a hot mug of flavored tea without having to run out to the garden to fetch the ginger root!  I am thinking I might just enjoy this tremendously!  Just one nice sized spoonful of this added to my homegrown persimmon leaf or hibiscus flower tea makes for a delightful drink!