3 Ways to Freeze Lemons

Winter time in Arizona brings us lots of yummy citrus. We are lucky enough to have family who have lemon trees and usually end up with way more than they can eat on their own. But now what? There is no way we can eat, juice or do whatever else we want with all of these awesome lemons in the week or two that we get them. So we freeze them!

Here are 3 of our favorite ways to freeze and use our lemons

1 – Slice and Blend Later

Slice each lemon and store it in a sealable bag. I can usually get 2-3 lemons in one bag sandwich size bag. Then we store as many of these smaller bags in a gallon size bag. When we are wanting to make some lemonade or use the lemons in a recipe (like are Lemon Yogurt Pops – Coming Soon) we pull out small bag. Using our Blendtec Blender we can blend whatever we need or if we only need one lemon worth, we can let it sit out for a few minutes until it is soft enough to pull the slices apart.

2 – Juice and Freeze in Ice Trays

This is definitely a fun and easy way to pull it out of the freezer to make lemonade BUT it is my least favorite. It’s quite messy to juice and pour into the ice trays, the counter ends up sticky for days and my kiddos always want to help with the mess making which equals even “more fun” (sarcasm intended!). After I learned our blender could even blend seeds and peel into liquid form, I prefer the slicing option above.

3 – Freeze Them Whole and Use Them Later

Seems a little too easy, right? But it really works. My father-in-law shared this way with me. The whole lemons defrost pretty fast and this is great way to add a little lemon zest to a recipe and then put it back in the freezer for later. I never realized how awesome lemon zest was in a recipe until last year and love being able to have a lemon always handy for when I may be in need. Plus, when I have tested all I can from a whole lemon, I can always use it to make juice in the blender.

When Finished…

I like to bag all the slices up in 2-3 lemons per smaller bag and then combine them in a gallon size sealable bag (the right) and then keep the whole lemons in the a separate gallon bag. If I did lemon ice cubes, I would also put a handful in a smaller bag similar to the sliced lemons with multiple mini cube bags in a gallon bag so I could easily pull them out as needed. Store everything in the freezer until you are ready to use!