Lucky to have lemons

No... this post is NOT about making lemonade when life gives you lemons. It's about my lemon tree!

I feel so lucky to have a lemon tree that produces lemons constantly almost all year long. I love squeezing a little lemon juice in my drinking water - it's so refreshing and cleansing.

The lemons don't all come at once where I have one big harvest during the summer - they pretty much come all year long. It does take a break every once in a while but I only go 3 months maximum without having access to fresh lemons.

And about every other year I lose all my lemons in the deep freeze of winter, when the temperature drops to freezing point for several days in a row. Yes, it does hit the freezing point here in Northern California.

I truly feel fortunate to have such a wonderful gift from nature. I look at my tree every day from my kitchen window while I make breakfast or wash the dishes - it's the centerpiece of the view to my backyard.

Did you know that lemons are actually alkalizing?
It's commonly believed that lemon is acidic because it's sour in taste. However, in the view of nutritional science, lemon is an alkaline food.

When we take in lemon juice it'll oxidize to form water, carbon dioxide and an inorganic compound. If it contains more sodium, potassium or calcium, it'll become an alkaline food. Because when sodium compounds dissolve in water, it forms an alkaline solution.

Learn about the nutritional benefits of lemon on the WHFoods site.

Pruning the tree...
My husband trimmed a few branches a couple of weeks ago and so I got a nice harvest just from the branches that came down.

The tree had been invaded by some insects near the base of the trunk so we thought we were going to lose it. But my husband did some tree surgery - removed all of the dead wood and sealed it. I fertilized it a bit after that and after 2 years it seems to be doing well.