Lemons as a crop
Lemon fruits
are produced over a long season with the main crop at Trigono-Lamda beginning to ripen in early November.The first harvest, in late October, is of small, green, unblemished, lemons which are sold for the European market. The fruit ripens after harvest, so that it is young and fresh for the consumer.
Harvesting continues with small, yellow fruits in November for the Athens market, and unblemished fruit for use as garnish.
Fruit remaining on the tree swells with the Autumn and Winter rain, but remains on the tree and can be harvested until Spring, by which time the lemons have swollwn to almost grapefuit-like proportions and the lemon juice is sweeter. The fruits are then sold to the local co-operative for the lemon juice market.
Lemon flowers
are white with orange anthers. They are sweetly scented and attractive to bees. However, orange blossom from the bitter orange is even more attractive and sweeter. Flowers, which bloom mainly in April- May can be used in Bach Flower rememdies.Lemon peel can be made into a sweet or marmalade and, if thick, can be eaten with salt - better tasting than it sounds!
Lemon juice
is acidic and valued for its cleansing properties as much as for its flavour. It turns alkaline in the stomach and a lemon slice or sqeeze of juice, in hot water is beneficial as an early morning drink.Lemon zest
is used for flavouring.Trigono-Lamda Lemon Grove produced a 15 ton crop in 2001, consistent with previous years' production. However, with no owner onsite, subsequent harvests could not be monitored and in 2004, the trees were so severely damaged by ice that they have never recovered. It costs more to harvest lemons than to leave them on the trees so in 2008 an assessment was made and a project started in 2009 to remove dead trees over grown with brambles and wild vines and to clear the land. In 2010, this will be completed when remaining trees are pruned and the surrounding land mown. Many of the trees remaining will produce bitter oranges rather than lemons, since the growth below the original grafts is stronger and enabled the trees to survive.
Hopefully enough trees will bear lemons to give a small crop for domestic use.