A Holiday Drink with Homegrown Lemons and Homemade Ginger Syrup
It’s lemon season.
Citrus heaven.
Well, technically, the season for Meyer lemons grown in temperate areas, such as a big pot in my Missouri dining room, can be year-round. But we just finally picked the first golden bursts of sunshine from our little tree.
In a little over a year, we have seen our little Meyer lemon tree burst into bloom a couple of times. After creating an intoxicating fragrance, most of the flowers fell off. But last spring, several of blooms gave way to little green fruits.
Two of them lasted through the hot, hot summer, my inconsistent care and a move back inside for winter. I eyed the lemon babies daily for signs of yellowing. Finally, they were ready.
Since we only had two, I wanted to be sure we used them for some special and memorable recipe.
There they are! Two homegrown lemons!
By chance, around the same time, my DIY gourmet friend Lisa gave me a bottle of her homemade ginger syrup.
So, Zach cut up the lemons – which were amazingly sweet, tart and juicy – and mixed up some delicious drinks (with a little help from the Sodastream that I previously bought on Lisa’s recommendation).
Check out the recipe for the drinks and the syrup itself!
Lemon Vodka Gingerade (Crystal’s approximation of Zach’s recipe)
Ingredients:
- Vodka
- Lemon wedges
- Ginger Syrup
- Unflavored sparkling water
- Ice
Directions:
Fill a pint glass with ice. Add vodka. We usually pour to about 1/4 of the glass. This would be about 1 to 1-1/2 shots if you’re measuring. Next, add sparkling water, leaving about a finger’s width of room at the top of the glass. Grab a couple lemon wedges and squeeze them into the drink. Then, add ginger syrup to taste.
Now, stir, and enjoy!
That bottle of syrup didn’t last long at our house!
A Loose Recipe for Ginger Syrup (Lisa’s Recipe)
Ingredients:
- 3 big pieces of ginger, about the size of your hand
- (Filtered) water
- 2.5 – 3.5 cups suger, I used about 2 parts white, 1 part lt. brown, 1 part raw
- A few pieces of lemon peel from an organic, unwaxed lemon, no pith
Directions:
Note: I just filter it though a medium/fine mesh sieve a couple of times, but if you want it less cloudy and pulpy, you can pass it though cheese cloth a few times before you add the suger.
On this batch, I boiled the ginger down a second time with a couple fresh cups of water. I thought I could get more ginger flavor, but I think it just got a bit bitter. I probably wont do that again.
Have you ever made your own syrup for flavoring fancy drinks? What’s your favorite sparkling drink for holiday time?
Posted on December 18, 2012, in Food, Gardening, Random Life and tagged containerized lemon tree, DIY gourmet, Food, ginger syrup, ginger syrup recipe, how to make Ginger Syrup, lemon vodka, Lemon Vodka Gingerade recipe, Meyer Lemon Tree, Sodastream, vodka lemon, what to do with lemons. Bookmark the permalink. 15 Comments.
Sounds yummy! I’m interested in the soda stream (joe wants one!). Are you enjoying it? Do you drink a lot of sodas? I just got a juicer at the recommendation of a friend and LOVE it!
We don’t really drink soda at all. That stuff is yucky! We got the soda stream so that we could experiment with making our own flavorings and maybe save money by not spending so much on La Croix. If you think you’ll use it for that stuff, I would recommend Sodastream.
Excellent……..saw no mention of the Sodastream in the recipe……
The Sodastream provided the unflavored soda water.
That sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing the recipes.
I gotta try this one.
I think one of the first post I ever read in here was this one:
http://waywarddogs.com/2012/08/22/easy-basil-mint-tea-in-a-pickle-jar/
I forgot to tell you that I tried it out and I loved it.
Thanks.
Reading your comment made my day! It also made me wistful for summertime basil mint tea!
That looks simply delicious! We have family oping at Christmas and they like to experiment with drinks…
That sounds like a fun family!
The only syrup I’ve ever made is a simple syrup for sangria, which isn’t all that hard. As for those lemons I think I’d want to make a pie with them or maybe even some homemade ricotta… yum!
Next time I have lemons, I’m bringing them to your house to make ricotta!
Deal!
Love the bubbles this time of year – thanks for sharing your drink – love citrus too:) Have a Great One!
Yes, bubbles are a must this time of year!
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