Spent Lemons

For my home-made "energy drinks" I squeeze an entire lemon into it most days of the week...

I'm starting to realize I've likely already done enough harm shifting the pH of my compost with too many spent lemons and am starting to wonder if I could be putting them to use elsewhere...

Anybody use spent lemons for cleaners or have any other ideas "out of the box" I could try?

I make cleaner by steeping them in vinegar for like a month. I use limes because I live in Mexico and have a lime tree. It works great.
Just put the squeezed citrus in a jar, top with white vinegar and let stand in a dark place. Later strain and use in a spay bottle to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

Melissa Ferrin wrote:I make cleaner by steeping them in vinegar for like a month. I use limes because I live in Mexico and have a lime tree. It works great.
Just put the squeezed citrus in a jar, top with white vinegar and let stand in a dark place. Later strain and use in a spay bottle to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

Definitely doing this! Thank you!!

Melissa Ferrin wrote:I make cleaner by steeping them in vinegar for like a month. I use limes because I live in Mexico and have a lime tree. It works great.
Just put the squeezed citrus in a jar, top with white vinegar and let stand in a dark place. Later strain and use in a spay bottle to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

Is this antibacterial? And does it smell like a real lime?

I agree with the vinegar cleanser.  This time of year we end with a ton of limes and oranges.  I just pile up the rinds and put them in vinegar for at least 4-6 wks.  It will no longer smell like vinegar and adds a bit more cleaning power.  

IF  there is any fruit left, you could boil it for a in the moment air freshener.  OR dip in coconut sugar for a sweet treat.

H Hardenberg wrote:

Melissa Ferrin wrote:I make cleaner by steeping them in vinegar for like a month. I use limes because I live in Mexico and have a lime tree. It works great.
Just put the squeezed citrus in a jar, top with white vinegar and let stand in a dark place. Later strain and use in a spay bottle to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

Is this antibacterial? And does it smell like a real lime?

I'm not an expert on the antibacterial claims of vinegar. I'm also not at all germaphobic so I'm not concerned with that.  It does descale things nicely if you have hard water. It smells like lime and a bit like vinegar, though not nearly as strongly as straight vinegar. I've been doing this for years (at least since my son was a baby and he's 13) I've found that mandarine oranges and grapefruit rinds produce the best-smelling cleaner but we use way more limes.  

I also do what Melissa suggests, in a big gallon jar. You can add the limes slowly, or freeze them if you're generating them little by little.

I accidentally left a jar for too long once (6 months?) and it turned black-moldy. I strained it and it lost its nice citrus smell and cleaning ability. Maybe try not to leave it that long!!!
(it is ACE for cleaning stainless steel, I put it in a squirtie bottle (like you see in a hot dog stand for mustard or ketchup) and use it for kitchen and bathroom. Super recommended!

Make Lemon Marmalade:

https://permies.com/t/208836/kitchen/Making-Marmalade

I have that thing in the bottom of my kitchen sink that grinds up detritus--sometimes I let it grind up the lemon peels to hopefully clean it off and it makes the kitchen smell nice for a few minutes.

I tried the lemon peels in vinegar thing once and ended up throwing it out. The oils in the peels got into the vinegar, which made it a very poor cleaner for me. Maybe if I had a lot of wood furniture or something.

Lemon marmelade sounds more useful, if you're into it. Candied rind for baking and limoncello come to mind, too.

If you can make yourself eat them, they are extremely healthy as I understand it.

Lemoncello
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=limoncello+recipe&&view=detail&mid=E05D9FF16ACA76C189D2E05D9FF16ACA76C189D2&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dlimoncello%2Brecipe%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

I keep it in the freezer so it's an ice-cold aperitif, on a hot summer day. Nice drizzled over a good Vanilla ice-cream.

Anne Miller wrote:Make Lemon Marmalade:

https://permies.com/t/208836/kitchen/Making-Marmalade

I've added a possible recipe to try on that thread here. I think lemons have quite as much pectin as Seville oranges, so it should work well.

Another possibility mentioned above is candied peel. There is a super method linked here that I've been wanting to try on my Angelica.

I believe most of the lemon oil is in the zest, so if you grate the lemon skins before juicing the lemons, you could dry, freeze or infuse the zest and get most of the goodness out of them.

Anne Miller wrote:Make Lemon Marmalade:

https://permies.com/t/208836/kitchen/Making-Marmalade

Whew! I thought this would be awesome until I realized the amount on time/labor that would go into it… I feel I could only justify this if I were doing such large batches that it would last the year

This recipe sounds like it might be easier:

Nancy said, "you can make marmalade using mainly the skins off citrus fruit

https://permies.com/t/208836/kitchen/Recipe-Making-Marmalade#1761239

The citrus vinegar, which I use all the time - I have a perpetual batch. Old periods come out, new ones go in, the vinegar comes out, fresh gets poured in. I love it for everything but windows. Don't use it on those, unless you adore streaks. One of the things I love the stuff for is when one of the dogs has an accident, in the house. It works way better than plain vinegar.

If your not up for making marmalade, you can candy the peels, or dry them, to grind and use in baking. If you have something that needs a major scrubbing, sprinkle some medium to course salt on the cut side of a half, and use that to scrub it.

Fresh zest adds a wonderful punch of flavor to lemonade, tea (particularly herbal ones), mixed drinks, cake batter, and more. Oh! Shaker lemon pie!!!

One of my all time favorite lemon products is curd. It's incredible, on toast, biscuits, in pie, with whipped cream on top, folded into whipped cream, to make a lemon mousse, or will, if I'm going to be completely honest - with a spoon.

If you want to balance the ph of your hair, rinse it with water and lemon 1:1, and to lighten your hair do the same rinse, leave it in, and spend some time in the sun.

Moroccan preserved lemons are super easy to make and use, and are amazing with fish, other seafood, or poultry.

If I think of anything else, I'll come back.

If you have a decent food processor or blender, this cake. 1 lb of spent lemons can be substituted for the oranges. You could increase the sugar, or not, as you choose.

Edit- ignore the ‘don’t purée’ bit. Works fine with purée. I do mine in a vitamix



1 cup butter (225g), softened or browned
1 1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 oranges (about 1 lb or 450g), ends trimmed, then cut into chunks and seeded
2 1/2 cups (315g) flour (if whole-grain, add 2 egg yolks)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons plus 1 tsp. orange juice





Preheat oven to 325°. Grease a 10-cup Bundt pan or 2 8x4 loaf pans. In a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs.

Whirl orange chunks in a food processor until mostly smooth but not puréed. Add 1 1/2 cups orange mixture to batter and beat until blended. Add flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder to bowl and beat until smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few crumbs clinging to it, about 55 minutes. Cool pan on a rack 10 minutes, then invert cake onto rack and let cool completely.

Whisk together powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl. Drizzle over cooled cake. Let glaze set, then slice cake.

Jordan Holland wrote:If you can make yourself eat them, they are extremely healthy as I understand it.

I wouldn't eat bought lemons unless they're organic. Standard, whether 'waxed' or 'unwaxed' are treated with fungicide, here in Europe anyway.

Have no concerns over putting them in the compost. Providing you're balancing 'greens' and 'browns', that acidity, made by biology, can be broken down by biology. Same as toxic plants, rhubarb, cherry laurel. Compost can't real with mineral acids and alkalis, mineral oils and synthetic polymers that haven't got enzyme-grabbable ends, chlorinated herbicides and the like.

Maybe dry the rinds and use them in pot pourri

Melissa Ferrin wrote:I make cleaner by steeping them in vinegar for like a month. I use limes because I live in Mexico and have a lime tree. It works great.
Just put the squeezed citrus in a jar, top with white vinegar and let stand in a dark place. Later strain and use in a spay bottle to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

I do the same with orange peels.

Melissa Ferrin wrote:I make cleaner by steeping them in vinegar for like a month. I use limes because I live in Mexico and have a lime tree. It works great.
Just put the squeezed citrus in a jar, top with white vinegar and let stand in a dark place. Later strain and use in a spay bottle to clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

I was wondering as it seems to be the rind that helps to clean surfaces: Limes might actually be better than lemons because there is more rind relative to the size of the fruit? Someone had your idea but they came out with eight more ways to use the squeezed fruit:
https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/top-9-uses-leftover-lemon-peels/

I'm sure you wouldn't want to take the time to make one every single day, but you can make super-cute bird feeders with a hollowed out citrus peel, (cut in half to make two little cups) something sharp to poke 4 equidistant holes in the sides near the cut edge, and several feet of twine.

I made some out of mandarin peels a few years ago and they were a huge hit with the pine siskins and a few other smaller but unidentified finch-types around us, but they are really too small to be practical feeders for a wide variety of birds...  they ARE just adorable though!

My more practical advice is to second the lemoncello suggestions, it is super easy and makes a great gift.

I don't see any suggestion for making your own Lemon Pepper seasoning. Grate the rind but avoid the pith and let it dry out. Add to fresh ground pepper, and if you like your seasonings all in one, add an appropriate amount of salt to balance. Pour into a nice container and use on fish or chicken dishes.

Since I've never tried to grate a spent lemon, I'm not sure if it's any easier or harder than grating before you use it for juice. But if you know you want to use grated peel before you squeeze them, it can be done and then you'll get none of the oils from the rind on you or in what you make with the juice! But I love the smell of lemon oils on my hands when I squeeze for juice! An aromatherapy moment!

This is just an FYI folks ... Any citrus cleaner ... Do not spray it on ANYTHING plastic ... It will eat into it and leave marks. But it is a fantastic cleaner for just about anything else. My old friend "Jay" was a brilliant crazy scientist ... Made me a bottle of citrus cleaner with oranges ... I had a stack of CD's in their cases sitting on my kitchen counter and I accidentally got some of the spray on them when I was cleaning off my counter. Big mistake! It eats into the plastic and leaves marks all over it. And this was a bottle of vinegar and oranges.

Another post they are talking about preserved salted lemons, might be worth a look.

I feel that those lemon peels would work for Morrocan Lemons:

https://permies.com/t/146815/kitchen/Fermenting-Lemons

While looking for something on another topic I found these:

https://permies.com/t/16727/Lemon-Peels

https://permies.com/t/134461/kitchen/Tasty-Bitter-Lime-syrup-distressed

https://permies.com/t/8797/Insecticide-Citrus-Peels

All squeezed citrus fruit skins can be dried on a warm surface - we do with our wood central heating stove. Brittle dry they all make excellent fire starters burning with a fierce heat - the oil I assume. While drying they perfume the kitchen.

Harold Pooley wrote:All squeezed citrus fruit skins can be dried on a warm surface - we do with our wood central heating stove. Brittle dry they all make excellent fire starters burning with a fierce heat - the oil I assume. While drying they perfume the kitchen.

I'm going to try this!

On a different thought path of what to do with spent citrus———. I feed it to my sheep. Mine will eat just about any citrus rind and all, though they have their preferences.  Cattle will eat it too.

Tauni Whitley wrote:This is just an FYI folks ... Any citrus cleaner ... Do not spray it on ANYTHING plastic ... It will eat into it and leave marks. But it is a fantastic cleaner for just about anything else. My old friend "Jay" was a brilliant crazy scientist ... Made me a bottle of citrus cleaner with oranges ... I had a stack of CD's in their cases sitting on my kitchen counter and I accidentally got some of the spray on them when I was cleaning off my counter. Big mistake! It eats into the plastic and leaves marks all over it. And this was a bottle of vinegar and oranges.

Also, anything acidic (vinegar, citrus juice) will etch granite.  So you might not want to use citrus infused vinegar on granite counter tops.

I think I might  add a slice or two to my pickle jar see what it adds to the brine.