Lemon and Kumquat Permaculture Garden Harvest with Keto Friendly Recipes. Organic Food Forest.

How to process Lemons and Kumquats in a Keto friendly way:

We processed about 30 pounds of lemons and 10 pounds of kumquats. We have them growing in our permaculture garden in the Florida food forest. The varieties are Myers Lemons, and Nagami and Centennial Variegated Kumquats. Here is what we did with them:

-One jar of salted lemon. Use coarse sea salt and use about a tablespoon per lemon. Turn it over daily for three weeks. I wash the lemon off before using it. The lemon is very lemony while less tart and sour.

-8 jars of whole kumquats with a light sugar substitute recipe. We use swerve and water bath canned half of these while pressure canning the other half. The water bath canned ones will be firmer, and the pressure canned Nagami Kumquats will be spreadable. Both will be pretty in the jars.

-3 jars of concentrate used to make lemonade. They will create about three gallons of lemon juice and are perfect for Vodka lemonades after you add holy basil flowers to the pitcher of ice.

-6 jars of sliced Centennial Variegated kumquats preserved in a light Swerve sugar substitute and lemon juice.

-Numerous and various sized jars of water bathed lemon curd. We combined 21 egg yolks, 5 cups of lemon juice, lemon zest from 8 lemons and Swerve sugar substitute to taste. We then brought it to 175 degrees stirring constantly (If you do not stir constantly, you will have scrambled eggs and if you go over 180 degrees, your eggs may separate). Stir until it starts to thicken. Take it off the heat and add your butter still stirring. Let it cool and then add it to the jars. Use these to make Keto friendly lemon pies using ground walnuts and butter as the pie crust.

-All lemon peels and piths left over, we boiled these for 10 minutes three separate time pouring off the water in between and adding fresh water. The third time, we added Swerve sugar substitute and baked them in the oven. You can use these to make hot tea, as a garnish for iced tea, just to eat straight or dipped in Keto friendly chocolate.

We also treated ourselves to a fried pith in butter. After it caramelizes, we add Swerve and a teaspoon of very dark sugar free chocolate. Totally delicious.

Our Florida food forest is organic, and we also follow the rules of permaculture gardening. We have 15 citrus trees on our property.