Gnarly Only Skin Deep

Not as ugly as some years.

My lemon tree is pretty and the lemon flowers smell sweet. Plus which, the fruit is very juicy and good. However these little lemons get regularly discriminated against. They're just not your lovely and unblemished, perfect yellow specimens of lemonitude. If you can believe it, in past years the fruit was even gnarlier. We've been using a mineral boost for the soil, which is poor in Hawaii. Still they're not going to look good in any store; but, mighty fine anyway.




This tree is amazing, cranking out fruit pretty much year round, and lots of it.
On the other hand, the lemon tree across the road produces picture-perfect, very large lemons - with thick skins and less juice than mine. And, not anywhere near the quantity either.

Something to do with all those nice lemons - salt them.

Salted Lemons

• Slice your lemons almost to the stem end in quarters.
• Stuff each with about 1 tablespoon of rock salt and put in jar(s). Add enough salt to surround the lemons.
  
• Minced chili peppers may be tossed in, perhaps some raw, sliced ginger.
• 4 lemons, juiced & the juice poured over all
  
• Then put your jar in a sunny place for 3-4 weeks. (After a few days the level will come down and you may add a few more lemons.)
  
• Let age for 6 months.

This is a nice condiment with curries, roasts, duck, etc. etc. and keeps indefinitely.

And, the parable is - of course - we shouldn't judge by the outward appearance alone, as many did in our recent election. Often the "news" isn't all that objective or fair either. In fact, I would say, most of the time; since "they" have their own agendas.