With our English summer temperatures rising, Gooey Puds are putting on a Fresh Lemonade stand (as well as the usual delicious deserts) at the Ely Foodie Friday on 30th June. Come along and experience a burst of Mediterranean freshness between your ceilidh dances.
Why Sicily?
Sicily has a prime Mediterranean climate - swift to warm in spring and slow to cool in winter - which combined with a soil made rich and fertile by successive eruptions of Mount Etna, has made it a perfect spot for growing lemons. There are year-round cropping and ripening opportunities. The Limone de Siracusa and Limone dell'Etna, are both named for the regions in which they grow and have three main harvesting periods of winter, spring and summer. These will form the basis for our refreshing lemonade.
Pith, peel and pips - other uses for lemons...
You will perhaps have sampled our lemon posset or succumbed to the lemony tang of our treacle tart, but did you now that lemons have a multitude of non-pudding based uses? Even the pith, the white spongy layer between the flesh and the peel, is high in fibre and anti- oxidants, whilst it has a bitter taste which may be less useful for puddings can be used to add depth and zing to tagines or stews.
In fact, the whole lemon can be used with no wastage, you can even use the pips in marmalade making being naturally high in pectin. Or perhaps you can grow your own tree....
Mine is busy adding more leaves for this year and whilst we might not have Sicily's perfect lemon-growing conditions I'm still hoping for some fruit one day!
I wish I lived nearer to Ely!!!
😥