Old Fashioned Lemon Drink

Intro

Diane Edyvane's old fashioned lemon drink is world famous in Levin after she served it up at our annual volunteers morning tea party. Everyone in Horowhenua (except me) grows lemons and Diane and Fred are no exception - acres of citrus including limes, several varieties of lemon, grapefruit etc. Sometimes she uses a few limes as well as lemon in this cordial - just for a change. This is another old family recipe - not my families - but Diane remembers her Mother making this, as did hers - often with tartaric acid and epsom salts as well as the citric acid. 

Recipe

• 6 lemons (8 or 9 if small)
• 1.5 kg sugar (1.3 kg)
• 50 g citric acid
• boiling water

Peel the rind off two lemons. Place peel plus 2 cups of sugar in food processor and process until well ground. Squeeze the juice from the six lemons and mix juice with lemon sugar, the remaining sugar and the citric acid. Add boiling water making total volume up to 3 litres and stir to dissolve. Cool and store. Serve diluted with water about 1 part cordial to 5 or 6 parts water depending on taste.