Lemons
Lemons from the Ribera, unwaxed, all year round
Lemons picked to order in the Ribera del Xúquer. They’re one of the few things you’ll find in this shop all twelve months of the year: when the table citrus rests, in the middle of summer, the lemon tree keeps cropping. Together with the orange blossom honey, it’s what keeps the shop open between seasons.
A peel you can actually use
This is the difference you notice most. Supermarket lemons are usually waxed and treated so they survive weeks on a shelf; ours get nothing at all after they’re cut. That means you can zest the peel without a second thought: for a cake, for pasta, for rice, for preserves or to drop into an infusion.
The trade-off is an honest one: they keep less well. An unwaxed lemon lasts days rather than weeks, and in time the skin wrinkles even though the inside is still perfect. If you’re going to use them slowly, keep them in the bottom of the fridge and take them out a while before squeezing, because a cold lemon gives less juice.
What our lemons are like
They’re tree lemons, not graded for a display case: the same box holds large and small pieces, and the peel may have marks or greener patches. Green doesn’t mean unripe; in lemons, colour depends on how cold the nights are as much as on the fruit itself.
What to do with 15 kilos of lemons
It’s the most reasonable question in the world, because a box goes a long way. What works best: squeeze them and freeze the juice in ice-cube trays — it keeps for months and is right there when you’re cooking —, zest several and freeze the zest separately, and make preserved lemons in salt, which last and go into stews.
Plenty of people order a box between two households or share it with family. If you’d rather have a smaller amount, tell us in the order notes and we’ll talk.
When to order them
All year round, although summer and winter lemons aren’t identical: the cold-month ones tend to have thicker skin and more aroma, and the summer ones give a little more juice. Both are cut the day we prepare the order.
How to get more juice out of them
Three things that work and cost nothing: take them out of the fridge half an hour beforehand, roll them on the worktop pressing with your palm before cutting, and squeeze them at room temperature. A cold lemon can give half of what the same lemon gives warm.
What to look at when you open the box
Spread the pieces out and remove any that look damaged: in a 15 kg box, one spoiled lemon infects its neighbours within days. Keep the ones you’ll use this week out; the rest go in the fridge or somewhere cool. And if you’re going to zest the peel, do it with the first ones: zest loses its aroma as the skin wrinkles.
Formats and delivery
Fruit comes in 15 kg boxes, except mandarins, which come in a 5 kg box. Everything is picked the day we prepare your order and leaves our warehouse in Albalat de la Ribera straight for your door, with no warehouses or distribution centres in between. Delivery takes 24-48 hours in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands; for now we don’t reach the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla.
If you want several things in one delivery, order them together and tell us in the order notes how much of each you’d like. And if anything arrives in poor condition, write to us and we’ll sort it out: we work with fresh produce and the journey sometimes takes its toll.