This is the long awaited (o.k., only a coupla days) lemon cleaner post.  I’ve had several folks asking after it and here it is!

This is what I do with all of my lemon peels, after I’ve exhausted the other outlets for them; lemon marmalade, candied lemon peel, etc.   This is what I ended up with when I was done, this weekend.

You take all the lemon peel left after you’ve done your lemonade and process it in the food processor.  Chop it up nice and small, you want all of the oils from the lemon to infuse out.  You may need to add some water at this stage to get it to chop small enough.

Get the biggest pot you’ve got and put the chopped peel into it.  Fill the pot to an inch from the top with water and bring to a boil.  Let stand overnight.

The next day, and I invariably do this in Jan/Feb in order to take advantage of the weather, freeze the mixture.  I do this by the expedient of simply taking it out to the garage and leaving it.   Let stand again, overnight.

  I needed to immerse the bottom of my bowl in a hot water bath in order to get it to defrost…

At this point, it’s done, but nothing will be hurt if you need to leave it for a day or two longer.

Next, you get a large strainer and scoop the mixture into it.  If you’ve time and can let it stand to drain very dry, let it go as long as you’d like.  If, like me, you’ve limited space and patience, after it’s drained a fair amount, scoop some into a cheesecloth and twist it until you’ve gotten all the goodness out of it.  Repeat until finished.  At this point, the mixture should have a lovely opalescent look to it.

  Pre-water bath

Pour into quart jars and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

After the water bath, you’ll notice that the mixture has separated.  This is o.k. and what should happen.

Post water bath

Word of warning.  Don’t let these jars explode.  I let a pot go dry last year and this is what happened to my brand new tea pot when the jar exploded outwards…

This is a mild de-greaser and an all purpose cleaner.  I use it 2-3 tablespoons per gallon of water – it makes my floors smell like summer!