This has been awesome. I made 23 pint jars full of lemonade concentrate. Canned and ready to be made into lemonade. To make them into lemonade is simple, I just mix the 1 pint of concentrate with 3 pints of water. Add a few ice cubes and you’ve got lemonade for all.

Our lemon tree was full and I needed to harvest it. My husband and I picked six, 5 gallon buckets worth of lemons. That’s roughly 150 lbs of lemons. The kids and I went to work on zesting, juicing, freezing and canning. If you’re interested in all the different ways I preserved my lemons, check out Preserving Lemons Seven Different Ways.

How to Make Lemonade concentrate

In order to make this large batch of lemonade you will need, a lot of lemons, a juicer, sugar, and a large pot.

1. Juice 10 cups of lemon juice. You can do this by hand or a hand juice but I highly recommend you use an electric juice. Yes, they are noisy but when doing gallons of juicing in one day, it comes in handy. Plus my kids really enjoy using it so getting them to help is easy.
2. Add 4-5 cups sugar to the juice in a large pot. I actually used 6 cups the first time I made this and it was too sweet and I lost the tangy taste of the lemon. So I suggest adding 4 cups and tasting it then adding more if needed.
3. Heat on medium to high heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Stir continuously to help the process. You want the sugar fully dissolved but you don’t need to boil it.

How to Can Lemonade Concentrate

To Can the lemonade concentrate you will need canning jars, lids, water bath canner, jar lifter, funnel, ladle, and a little vinegar on a clean rag.

1. First, sanitize your canning jars and lid. Wash in hot water, then boil/steam the jars in canner for 10 minutes. They don’t all have to be submerged, the steam will sanitize them. I also place all my lids and ring in my stainless steel colander and steam them on top of the jars while they boil.
2. When done place them on the counter on a kitchen towel, they will air dry.
3. Using the funnel, ladle the hot concentrate into prepared canning jars. Leaving 1/4 inch headspace from top.
4. Clean the top of the jars with little vinegar to insure a clean seal and put prepared lids and rings on finger tight. Don’t twist too tight or you may get a false seal.
5. Heat water in a water bath canner to 180 degrees or until steaming but not boiling. I also add a splash of vinegar to the water to help with any hard water spots on my can. I like them coming out clean and pretty.
6. Place jars with hot lemonade concentrate in the hot water bath canner. The goal is for the liquid in the can and the water in the canner to be of similar temperature. If the one is cold and one is hot it could break the glass. The cans need to be fully submerged giving at least an inch of water covering them.
7. Bring to a boil they may could take 20 minutes and boil for 10 minutes then turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before taking them out.
8. Take them out using your jar lifter and set them on a kitchen towel on the counter. Let cool completely before taking the rings off.
9. Check for any false seals and store on a shelf for 12-18 months. To make lemonade, mix 1 pint of juice with 3 pints of water.

Lemonade Concentrate

Yield: 7-8 Pint Jars

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Additional Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 33 minutes

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Ingredients

• 10 cups lemon juice
• 4-5 cups sugar

Instructions

1. Juice 10 cups of lemon juice and pour in a large pot.
2. Add 4-5 cups sugar. Start with 4 cups and taste later, add more until you reach your desired sweetness.
3. Heat on medium to high heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Stir continuously to help the process. You want the sugar fully dissolved but you don’t need to boil it.
4. Prepare jars and lids, and bring water in canner to 180 degrees.
5. Pour concentrate to jars, clean off rim before placing the lids and rings.
6. Place in water bath canner and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit in water for an additional 5 minutes.
7. Take out of canner and let cool completely before taking rings off Store on shelf for 12-18 months.
8. To make lemonade, mix 1 pint of juice with 3 pints of water.

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This year I’m making a big effort to pick every lemon and preserve everything. Here are the 5 ways I will be freezing my lemons.

1. Freezing Lemons Whole
2. Freezing Lemons Slices
3. Freezing Lemon Zest
4. Freezing Lemon Juice Cubes
5. Freezing Lemonade Popsicle’s

Freezing Lemons Whole

Freezing Lemons whole is the easiest thing in the world. Just throw them in the freezer. Done! You can store in the freezer for about 6 months. Whole frozen lemons take about 10-15 minutes to thaw out in a bowl of warm water. The remain very juice. The longer that are frozen the softer they get once thawed but still remain very juice. You can also zest your lemons when they are frozen and it’s actually very easy to do so as long as your finger can handle the cold lemon.

They downside to freezing lemons whole is the space it takes. Throwing a couple lemons in the freezer before they go bad is great but not for a full 5 gallon bucket full of them. I freeze my lemons whole when I’m out of time or energy to juice and process any more lemons.

Freezing Lemon Slices

Freezing lemon slices takes a few more steps than freezing them whole. This method includes slicing, placing on cooking sheets with parchment or wax paper and freeze. Once frozen you can put in zip lock bags or air tight container and keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.

I use lemon slices two different ways. Number one, cooking fish or chicken. Fish is the main meat we eat in our house and I love flavoring it with lemon. Have lemon slices frozen and ready to place on top of the fish while it cooks adds a fresh flavor. You can do the same for chicken or even add a few slices of lemon to pasta. The second way is simple to add lemon slices in my water cup for a quick refresher. In our hot summer days a cool refreshing drink with natural electrolytes, as lemons have, is exactly what I need. Throw in a sprig of mint from the garden while I sit under our shade tree watching my children play outside describes a perfect summer day for me.

Freezing Lemon Zest

Freezing lemon zest is worth the work. The work is not necessarily hard, I just don’t like it zesting. But I love zest. First you use a grater or zester to grate the lemons. Then place on a sheet with parchment or wax paper and freeze, put it in your zip lock bags or air tight container. You can keep this in the freezer for up to a year.

The lemon peel and zest holds a lot of flavor as well as some weight loss benefits. If you are not used to using it in your recipes I highly encourage you do. The zest of a lemon adds just that much more lightness and citrus flavor to any meal.

Freezing Lemon Juice Cubes

Freezing lemon juice in ice cub trays is the number one way I freeze my lemons. I use all the lemons I just zested, cut them in half and juice them with my electric juicer, strain the pulp*, and pour into my ice cube trays to freeze. You can use a hand juicer or a press, I like my electric juicer when I’m juicing hundreds of lemons at a time.

One cube is approximately 3 table spoons of lemon juice. So when I have a recipe calling for a similar amount I just grab an ice cube, melt it, either by sitting in a bowl on the counter or a quick microwave or just tossing it in a hot pan then add it to my recipe. If you want the measurements to be exact, you can measure it out once its melted. The ice cube size is perfect for dropping in my water cup for some lemon water along with my lemon slice. Add a little honey and you have a sweet lemonade. I will also add a cube in our smoothies, or make frozen lemonade in the blender.

*tip, if you will be adding any lemon juice to a drink dispenser be sure to strain with a fine mesh strainer. The pulp will clog the nozzle and you will get a very slow pour if any./

Freezing Lemonade Popsicles

This is my kids favorite! I buy the a pack of 100-150 Popsicle Bags from Amazon and fill them up with lemonade for us to enjoy through out the summer. First I make the lemonade by heating up a ratio of 1 part lemon, 1/2 a part sugar and 3 parts water. Heat until the sugar is fully dissolved, let cool and then pour in the popsicle bag with a funnel. Seal the bags, freeze and enjoy all summer long!

This ratio is not always perfect and I also end up going by taste more than anything. I do like my lemonade a little tart. The Old Fashioned Lemonade ratio has the lemon and sugar at equal parts. My lemons are a little sweeter then most so I don’t add that much sugar. So feel free to experiment with the ratio to get your lemonade popsicles to your liking.

More Ways To Preserve Lemon?

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Quick links for a few kitchen tools I used in this post.

Electric Juicer, a must have for juicing over 100 lemons. There are fancier more expensive ones out there that I would be tempted to try but I’ve had this $15 (now $20) one for 8 years now and it has worked great for me this whole time. In the amazon description it says small but it holds 32oz just like the $40 one, so I don’t know why it says small.

Cheese Grater/Zester, This is the one I use, It’s a 4 in 1 box grater, with 4 different blade sizes. I use the small blade to zest my lemons.

Zester, smaller than a grater with just 1 size grater for if you don’t care for a bulky box grater this is the type my sister uses, it is the a smaller and easier to store.

Ice Cube Trays, These ice cube trays live in my freezer and always have ice in them. We are always making ice and in the lemon season lemon ice cubes.

Popsicle Bags, my kids love popsicles and these bags make it easy for me to make them in bulk to have all summer.

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