AN ODE TO THE LEMON

We have lots of fruit trees on our little block and my favourite is our lemon tree. Apparently there are varieties of lemon trees that fruit a few times a year, but we sadly have the variety that happens only once a year. That much awaited time has come! It is a BUMPER harvest and I now must find many things to do with lemons as quickly as possible! I shall be sharing some of these with you in the weeks to come, but would also LOVE to hear your favorite things to do with lemons. The possibilities are endless no doubt!

My friend Kate (the knower of all 'foodie' things) has told me that you can actually freeze lemons whole. My Mum always squeezed the juice and froze it in ice blocks, which I have done also, but many of my recipes call for lemon zest, therefore freezing the lemon whole is something I shall be doing this year!

'An Ode to the Lemon' by Pablo Neruda has long been a favourite poem of mine. I first saw it written on a cafe chalkboard and have loved it ever since.

Ode To The Lemon

Pablo Neruda

From blossoms

released

by the moonlight,

from an

aroma of exasperated

love,

steeped in fragrance,

yellowness

drifted from the lemon tree,

and from its plantarium

lemons descended to the earth.

Tender yield!

The coasts,

the markets glowed

with light, with

unrefined gold;

we opened

two halves

of a miracle,

congealed acid

trickled

from the hemispheres

of a star,

the most intense liqueur

of nature,

unique, vivid,

concentrated,

born of the cool, fresh

lemon,

of its fragrant house,

its acid, secret symmetry.

Knives

sliced a small

cathedral

in the lemon,

the concealed apse, opened,

revealed acid stained glass,

drops

oozed topaz,

altars,

cool architecture.

So, when you hold

the hemisphere

of a cut lemon

above your plate,

you spill

a universe of gold,

a

yellow goblet

of miracles,

a fragrant nipple

of the earth's breast,

a ray of light that was made fruit,

the minute fire of a planet.