So much juice...

One of the wonderful things about living in Arizona is the access to fresh citrus during the winter and early spring. Like I've mentioned before, we have two small citrus trees. They're great for fresh fruit, but we don't get enough to store up enough juice for the year. However, between my parents and my in-laws, we were given PLENTY of citrus. I spent about 5-6 hours about 3 weeks ago just juicing, juicing, juicing...oh, so much juice. Juicing is pretty simple, but just remember to WASH your fruit first so it doesn't grow bacteria.

What do you do with all those citrus peels? Well, I mentioned in my Let's Play a Game post that you can throw those peels under the tree they came from to help fertilize the tree (or use it for composting). There are so many other ways to use up those peels. I've tried a few of them so far, but will try more and post them later on. I love the scent of citrus. It's so fresh, plus it reminds me of home. Instead of lighting a candle, consider simmering citrus rinds on the stove. It smells great, just keep checking that it doesn't run out of water. I kept many of the rinds in plastic bags and stored them in the freezer. If my garbage disposal starts stinking, I just throw a couple peels down there for a fresh, clean scent!

The children love orange juice popsicles. You can even add fruit- strawberries or pineapple- to the popsicles. If you make lemonade popsicles, add food coloring to make it fun! (we made green for St. Patty's Day) I also made flavored oils. I cleaned out and cut up orange, grapefruit, and lemon peels, placed them separately in small jars. Then I filled the jar with extra virgin olive oil. I let it sit for 3 weeks and just used some yesterday to make a salad dressing. I also used it in place of olive oil when I sauteed spinach. It added a little extra flavor. I wonder if I can use it to make scented candles?..

Of course, when life gives you lemons...you make LEMONADE! Jeepers did not appreciate tasting the lemons while we were juicing, but they loved drinking the fresh squeezed lemonade. I've heard about so many ways to use lemons in cleaning, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Lemon is so powerful and we use it so rarely that I think we have a 3 year supply of it! I'll have to come up with more ways to use it.

Here's my freezer full of juice. Lemon, orange, grapefruit, and fruit cocktail. I ran out of jars, so I started filling gallon freezer bags which I've since heard that a lot of people use because it's cheaper and stores easily.

We're going to my in-laws today to get more citrus for juicing- one more time before the season is over. We won't be running out of fresh juice this year!