Friday, August 6, 2010

If Life Gives You Lemons...!


One of the easiest fruit trees to grow in many areas is the humble lemon tree!

A good, productive lemon tree can give you way more lemons than you think you can handle. However, if you want to know how to get the most out of your lemons, here are just a few suggestions. Hey, it certainly beats trying to drink all that lemonade, right?

For a sore throat or bad breath, gargle with some lemon juice.

Clean discolored utensils with a cloth dipped in lemon juice. Rinse with warm water.

Toss used lemons into your garbage disposal to help keep it clean and smelling fresh.

Use one part lemon juice and two parts salt to scour chinaware to its original luster.

A few drops of lemon juice in outdoor house-paint will keep insects away while you are painting and until the paint dries.

Remove scratches on furniture by mixing equal parts of lemon juice and salad oil and rubbing it on the scratches with a soft cloth.

To make furniture polish, mix one part lemon juice and two parts olive oil.

To clean the surface of white marble or ivory (such as piano keys), rub with a half a lemon, or make a lemon juice and salt paste. Wipe with a clean, wet cloth.

To renew hardened paintbrushes, dip into boiling lemon juice. Lower the heat and leave the brush for 15 minutes, then wash it in soapy water.

To remove dried paint from glass, apply hot lemon juice with a soft cloth. Leave until nearly dry, and then wipe off.

Rub kitchen and bathroom faucets with lemon peel. Wash and dry with a soft cloth to shine and remove spots.

Fresh lemon juice in rinse water removes soap film from interiors of ovens and refrigerators.

Create your own air freshener: Slice some lemons, cover with water, and let simmer in a pot for about an hour. (This will also clean your aluminum pots!)

Fish or onion odor on your hands can be removed by rubbing them with fresh lemons.

To get odors out of wooden rolling pins, bowls, or cutting boards, rub with a piece of lemon. Don’t rinse: The wood will absorb the lemon juice.

Save lemon and orange rinds to deter squirrels and cats from digging in the garden. Store rinds in the freezer during the winter, and then bury them just under the surface of the garden periodically throughout the spring and summer.

After a shampoo, rinse your hair with lemon juice to make it shine. Mix the strained juice of a lemon in an eight-ounce glass of warm water.

Mix one tablespoon of lemon juice with two tablespoons of salt to make a rust-removing scrub.

Before you start to vacuum, put a few drops of lemon juice in the dust bag. It will make the house smell fresh.

Get grimy white cotton socks white again by boiling them in water with a slice of lemon.

Clean copper pots by cutting a lemon in half and rubbing the cut side with alt until the salt sticks. Rub the lemon onto the metal, rinse with hot water, and polish dry.

Suck on a lemon to settle an upset stomach.

OK, now that we have taken care of the over abundance of lemons...what say we get some fresh coffee and sit out on the patio for a bit? Like a piece of lemon pie with your coffee?

12 comments:

2 Tramps said...

H.J.,
Thanks so much for all the tips. I bought five pounds of lemons a couple weeks ago and need to use them.

As for the lemon pie and coffee - I can't think of anything that sounds better!

HermitJim said...

Hey 2 Tramps...
i think that there are enough tips here to help you out, especially if you do a pie or some lemon pound cake with lemon icing!

Man, my mouth is watering already! Love those lemon flavored sweets!

Hey, thanks for coming by today!

Anonymous said...

Thanks HermitJim, I have two fruit trees on our property, a Valley Lemon being one of them. I had no idea there were so many uses for them - thanks for the knowledge. My wife loves to eat them raw (my eyes just water and lips pucker at that thought of the taste, lol), eating them like any other citrus fruit. I have heard lemon juice is not good for tooth enamel, fwiw.

Ben in Texas said...

Good Tips,BUT you forgot the most important one,,Good ole Lemon Meringue Pie!!!

Caddie said...

Hey Hermit, this is great...so many new uses of lemon juice. Definitely will store...I need all the help I can get. Thank you. A Positive Post

Ken said...

...is it me,or is sumthin'sour' with this post ???



...sorry Jim,couldn't resist...lol

JoJo said...

Good Morning My Special One
WOW thats quite a list all good tips. Thank you as always.
Coffee and lemon pie sounds
yummie, I will bring some fresh ground coffee to the patio.

HermitJim said...

Hey Anon 5:12...
If nothing else, they would be a good source of certain vitamins...just in case!

Even thinking about eating them raw makes my mouth pucker as well!

Guess you could say that the wife is a real sour puss, huh?

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Ben...
Gotta just love that lemon pie, right?

Thanks for the visit, buddy!


Hey Sissy...
Good to see you again! Glad you liked it and I hope that it was of some use to you!

You have a great day...and thanks for coming by today!


Hey Ken...
It does seem to have a certain "pucker power" to it, doesn't it?

Guess it is a little sour after all!

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey JoJo...
Glad you enjoyed the post, sweetie! You know I always try and give you something you can use, right?

Hey, thanks for coming by today, sweetie!

Mayberry said...

"When life gives you lemons".... Build a lemon cannon! (Evil grin) I'm gonna dust off my 'tater cannon and sleeve down the bore a bit....

HermitJim said...

Hey Mayberry...
Now THAT'S a use I hadn't thought of! Would come in handy in case of attack!

Nothing like a fresh, hard lemo upside the head to get your attention!

Thanks, buddy, for coming by today!

Unknown said...

HJ talking about lemons reminded me when we was building a sewerage treatment plant for Dallas along side the Trinity> Infact I helped build 3 of them.One for Dallas,one for Garland ,One for Irving.You know where all that fluid went after it was treated.It went down the Trinity into the Gulf Long before the BP spilled the Gulf has been a cesspool for years before BP.Back to lemons this one Electrician at lunch where we went to eat would order a glass of water.When the waitress brought our tea he would get our lemon wedge an make him a lemonade.Often wondered if he was stingy or frugal?

Noki said...

I don't like lemonade, so when life gives me lemons... I take the seeds, plant them, grow lemon trees, sell the lemons and use the money to buy fish, which I then bake and squirt with lemon juice. Yum!

But here's a use you didn't mention... Put lemon juice into a water pistol. When your boss asks you to do something like "download the Internet onto this disk", you can squirt him in the eye.

My boss would have been a sourpuss, though.

Hugs,
Ashley