Tooty, I admit I am a lemonade lover. Not the stuff that is powdered and water added, not the stuff in a plastic jug, but the lemonade that you squeeze, add light syrup, put over a tall glass filled with ice, and add a sprig of mint. Excuse me, I'm going to go get a glass of real lemonade!
Yes, lemonade with lots of crushed ice is the one for me too! I however really liked Sprite and sometimes Pepsi also, until I developed a few kidney stones... And it's because soda beverages often turn into phosphoric acid in our blood, which leaches out the calcium from our bones and teeth. And when too much of it passes out from the body - Is one of the causes of developing kidney stones. However, ice cold lemonade made by yourself (and in your own home) never hurt anyone! In fact that actually is one of the best ways to dissolve kidney stones, naturally, and without any pain! Anyway, my belief is that we should not let our own blood become too acidic, as that leads to problems.
I kinda figured it would go with saying that we are big lemon aide drinkers not to mention anything else ya can do with lemon juice we are never with out a gallon of lemon juice in our fridge.
Here is me selling fresh lemonade at the 2015 Karachi Eat Food Festival! I actually sold over 250 liters in 2 and a half days, which is some kind of a record for the KEFF - I even got some coverage from a few TV channels too!
S-H, please show how the juice is taken out. I see that machine there, but not clearly visible. My favourite is also lemon juice. Will have to see how jaggery goes with it instead of sugar which is not good.
Marlin, and Dinu: I also love fresh lemonade. At our local farmers markets around town they always have a stand like S-H has. With fresh squeezed lemonade. Cajun, WOW. I am impressed with the amount of lemon juice you have on hand. That will keep you lemonade all summer. S-H--Great info about the stones issue. A lot of people just do not think about what they are consuming. I am pretty outspoken when I go grocery shopping about how bad DIET anything is for you. I asked one lady if she new she was poisoning herself by drinking diet soda. She said I know. But I like it. DUHHHHH! Boy that is an amazing amount of lemonade sold. How many lemons did you have to squeeze? Wana--I enjoy a glass of iced tea also. Sweetened with Stevia. Dinu--you could use Stevia as a sweetener.
Here is the whole picture post of how we squeeze and save our lemon juice. http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/2013/01/pressing-on.html
Thanks Tooty. Jaggery is rich in minerals and better and much safer than 'refined, white sugar'. We use this in our diet and some cooking. We buy it from an organic farmers' outlet. We also get light coloured jaggery which is again not good. So we buy the not too light ones. We also get Stevia in some shops, but we have not used it yet.
We typically put a lil honey or natural cane syrup in our lemon aide for seeetness. It's an extreme southern thing. A big llass full is gonna hit the spot when I quit mowing for the day.
I am not sure but I think the amount of limes I squeezed with that machine was somewhere between 40 to 50 kilograms!!! All of which I later added to my compost, and gave to my 6 Persian limes I am growing at home! I think I'll make a post about them in our member's gallery section, and in it I will also show off that lime squeezing machine! And yes you are right, but soda (be it diet or not) isn't completely to blame, one's lifestyle also needs to be somewhat balanced... For example, military teaches every soldier to ration water, so new recruits are always made to run for miles without a drop to drink, (to toughen them up). They do carry water with them, but that is for emergencies - So only at the end of their daily maneuvers, when they reach back at base, are they allowed to drink as much as they like... Now young healthy recruits are barely out of teenage years, so their bodies can easily handle this kind of stress. But this unfortunately creates a very bad habit of neglecting to drink water throughout their life. So when some of them return back into civilian life, they are unable to break this habit. However this too one can live with, as long as one does end up drinking water some time during the day. But when one opens the fridge and sees Sprite, or Pepsi/Coke, or Mirinda next to the water bottles - - Boom! Kidney stones R us Inc. is established!!! Of course, the pain of a kidney stone is such that after feeling it (even for a short time), one suddenly developers a new habit of never stop drinking water, and sometimes home made lemonade (if a sweet beverage is very badly needed)... Seriously, soon after I completely dumped soda beverages - I noticed that I had a lot more energy left in my body, (no matter how hard I pushed myself during the day)! And no random heartburn during the nights either! So my conclusion is that consuming Soda instead of water equals to simply poisoning yourself slowly.
Cappy-Yikes I checked out your blog. Boy,that sure was a lot of lemons you 2 squeezed that day. Honey would make the lemon juice taste wonderful. What a blessing to have your own fruit trees. Do you throw away all the squeezed rinds? If you wanted to after all your hard work. You could make lemon zest out of the rinds. But I fear that would be a very long process with lots of fingers rubbed down to the bone. Oh well, it was just a thought. Dinu--I looked up what jaggery was made out of. Now I know. I also use beet sugar for a sweetener in my baking. But honey would also work really good.One thing about stevia I don't is that to me it has a slight bitter aftertaste. Kate-I don't think I have ever tried Becks before. We can buy it here in the US and I have seen it in stores. But never tried it. I'll have to put that one on my list. S-H -Yikes that is a lot of limes. Will have to check out your post on your demo of the squeezing machine. Yes so true about sugar drinks and foods. I have to really watch myself because of sugar addiction when I was young. At 4 years I would get up on the kitchen table when no one was watching and eat spoons full of sugar out of the sugar bowl. YIKES! So every now and then I get a sugar craving. I usually win, but somedays it's a battle. Especially if I am stressed over something. You mentioned about you quitting drinking soda and how much better you felt. To much sugar can be the cause of many health problems. I for one can tell when I eat or drink to much of it because my finger joints get stiff feeling. Interesting about the recruits and their trouble with not drinking enough water after they serve, and return back to civilian life. Lack of water can lead to one having arthritis and joint issues as you get older. Also the kidney stones that you went through. Our neighbor had them and said that the pain was so bad when he passed them. Now he drinks more water. We are so blessed to have great drinking water as we have our own well water. We have it tested every few years to make sure it is safe. I also do not drink soda if possible. I like drinking the flavored carbonated water if I need a glass of something fizzy.
A nice cold glass of iced tea. On a hot day for me anything with is usually good. I go through so much ice out of my freezer on a beautiful day like today.
When you have bucket after bucket of lemon peels we compost most of them but we do use them too. One of our favorite things is to pack jars with julianed rinds and top the jars off with vodka we then park them in the cabinet for 6 months or so. When ya remove the rinds ya have a lovely flavored vodka that makes wonderful lemon drinks and the peelings are then coated with sugar and dried to make lemon peel candy
