What’s summer without Lemonade?

This is the easiest way to have the drink of hot sunny days, or of lazy afternoons with a book in the shade.

I’ve been using Naturally Imperfect Lemons from Superstore. You get about 13-15 lemons for about $6. It makes about 5 cups of concentrate, which when mixed at 1:3 makes about 22 – 6 oz glasses of lemonade. And, bonus, a bunch of ready-to-use lemon zest to be kept in a bag in your freezer for salad dressing, baking etc.

Ingredients:

13-15 lemons
400gr sugar (2 c)
310ml water (1¼ c)

Prepare Mason Jars or Bottles: I use Grolsch bottles, as they don’t take up much room in the fridge and they are easy to pour from. Rinse out those that you are going to use, with boiling water. Set aside, until ready to fill.

Zest all the lemons, careful to avoid grating the pith. Reserve the zest for another use. I put it in a small zip-loc bag, squeeze the air out, and freeze.


Juice the lemons until you have about 2½ c of strained juice. I put the pulp & seeds into a small sieve, and press until I get every last bit of juice. If you end up with a bit more than 2½ c of juice, or a bit less, you will still get a great concentrate, it will be just a bit sweeter, or a bit tarter!

In a medium saucepan (2-3 litres), mix the water and sugar.
Heat over medium heat for about 4 minutes, does not need to boil.
Stir gently and frequently.
In about 4 minutes, the sugar will have dissolved.
Take the simple syrup off the heat.
Carefully pour in the lemon juice, stir gently.
Let cool to room temperature.

Using a clean funnel, pour the concentrate into your bottles or jars.

Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. You can also freeze it for 3 months. Just take it out and leave it in your fridge to thaw. I find that two of us can easily get through one batch within 3 weeks.

Mix with ice-cold water 1 part concentrate to 3 parts water, or to taste.

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Farmhouse Cook 2020