My co-worker gave 30 pounds of lemons from his tree.I don"t know what to do with them. I do not have juicer of any kind. I do not have a dehydrator. I DO have a vaccum sealer. Can I freeze them Whole/Sliced??? What can I do with them??

BORROW a juicer.

Freeze the juice first in ice cube trays, then vacuum seal in sizes reasonable for how you cook. In summer with the 100+ weather, you'll be glad you did (lemonade).

You'll use the juice in piccata, mixed drinks, over fish, mix in a splash at the end of cooking lots of dishes to enhance the flavors.

Also, zest as many as you like (before juicing), freeze little clumps of about 1 tablespoon, then vacuum seal in a bunch of small packages. You'll use the zest in desserts, lemonade, poultry dishes, fish dishes to name a few.

Using non-zested half lemons, mound with a lemon granita (would be really pretty with lime zest or addition of berries), wrap tightly with plastic wrap and freeze. A lovely warm weather treat, entertaining or otherwise.

If you share the way you like to cook (ex. baker, French cuisine, peasant cook, vegetarian, etc.), I'll bet our members will offer lots more ideas.

I asked Melinda the same question. She said to just toss them whole into the freezer. I also juiced several of them and did the ice cube tray bit.

I agree with zesting, juicing and freezing. I don't have a vacuum sealer, so I put little mounds of zest on wax paper and fold them up securely. Then I wrap those in foil and place in Ziploc freezer bags. I put the frozen juice cubes right in Ziploc freezer bags.

If you're particularly fond of lemon (hope so! ), Lori Longbotham has two good books you might check into..."Lucious Lemon Desserts" and "Lemon Zest." The first one is my favorite but the second has both savory and sweet recipes. You can get great deals for both on Amazon.

I posted a recipe recently here in Recipe Requests for Chicken with Potatoes, Lemon and Asparagus. It's very good and would be a great way to use a very small portion of your supply.

I freeze them whole also. I put them on a sheet pan first, until they are solidly frozen, then into a plastic bag.
You can actually get a lot more juice out of the lemons after they have been frozen and it doesn't harm the zest either.

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Thirty pounds of lemons sounds like a lot but I guess I would be drinking lots of fresh lemonade. Can lemon zest be dried and stored like dried herbs?

Yes, it can be frozen.

I've heard it can be dried but I've only frozen it which works well.

If you decide to juice them and freeze the juice into ice cubes, be sure to label the bag in which you put the cubes.

Some years ago at Thanksgiving, I had cooked the meal for 23 people and was preparing the gravy. I pulled cubes from the freezer thinking they were frozen chicken broth cubes I had frozen earlier to add to the gravy. When my mother tasted the gravy to see if it needed salt or pepper, she said the gravy tasted sour. Well, of course...I mistakenly added lemon cubes and not broth cubes.

My daughter and she headed to a local "Turkey House" and bought some of their gravy...dinner saved.

Foodfan, I would file your gravy incident with my husband mistaking frozen buttermilk cubes for lemon juice and putting them in his lemonade. However, maybe yours was a little more trouble since you had 23 people.