Lemons as a crop
Lemons are produced over a long season with the main crop at Trigono-Lamda beginning to ripen in early November.
The first harvest will be of small, green, unblemished, lemons which will may be sold for the European market. The fruit ripens after harvest, so that it is young and fresh for the consumer.
harvest contiues with small, yellow fruits in November for the Athens market, and unblemished fruit for use as garnish.
Fruit remaining on the tree swells with the Autumn and Winter rain, but remains on the tree and can be harvested until Spring. Sizes can reach to almost grapefuit-like proportions and the lemon juice becomes sweeter.
Large, mishapen fruits are sold at a local co-operative for the lemon juice market.
Lemon peel can be made into a sweet or marmalade and, if thick, can be eaten with salt - better tasting than it sounds!
Lemon juice is acidic and valued for its cleansing properties as much as for its flavour. It turns alkaline in the stomach and a lemon slice or sqeeze of juice, in hot water is beneficial as an early morning drink. Lemon zest is used for flavouring.
Trigono-lamda lemon grove produced a 15 ton crop in 2001, consistnet with previous production. However, with no owner onsite, subesquent harvests could not be monitored and in 2004, the trees were so severely damaged by ice that they have never recovered.
it often costs more to harvest lemons than to leave them on the trees.