Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Ladro di Limoni – When Life gives you Lemons, or rather, doesn’t…

My mind may have waffled by age, but the few remaining neurons tell me that we left a lot of lemons behind on the trees in our garden this summer.

It just isn’t possible to consume the quantity they produce, all at one time.   Hundreds found themselves in  granita (seeing that I bought an ice-cream maker at a 70 percent discount).  Others in lemon curds, and lemon tarts non stop.   A large jug of lemonade took up too much permanent space in the small fridge.  Ice lemon tea, lemon marmalade, lemon chicken, grilled fish with lemon…need I continue?

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I even bring lemons back with me to Luxembourg. I haven’t bought lemons in years. After having the whopping Sfumata D’Amalfi lemons at your disposal, it’s hard to call the shop bought ones, real citrus.

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Lemon Pergola

My husband headed back to Positano a week ago and I reminded him that we were low on lemons in Luxembourg. I was sure that he’d bring back as much as his luggage would allow him to. I spoke to him on the phone the next day.

“There are no yellow lemons left” he said.

“ What do you mean? None at all?”, I asked incredulously.

“Not One ! Only green ones”, he insisted.

“Have they all fallen off ?”, I said  facing the fact that strong wind may have contributed to their demise.

“There’s nothing on the ground either!”

They couldn’t have been stolen I thought, because this garden with four lemon pergolas is a completely walled-in garden. No way passers-by would dream of coming in.

Gate to garden.

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When the gardener dropped by to prune the grapevines yesterday, my husband asked him if he knew what had happened to them.

'”They’ve been stolen”,  he said.  “ Most likely to be next door’s seasonal gardener.  With a  ladder let down from the garden above, they would have taken all of five minutes to snip off the fruit and disappear again”.

Sfusato Amalfitano

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Great.   Someone is going to make wonderful limoncello.

         Dear Lemon Thief,

  • May all the lemons be dry.
  • May they be lacking in flavour.
  • May they have trees complete with roots and leaves in each segment.
  • May they have scores of pips.
  • May the Limoncello you make, give you a terrible hangover.
  • May we catch you next time!

Meanwhile, I’ll have to buy the scrawny things in the shops…

21 comments:

Lucia said...

That sucks, how awful!!!

Cathi said...

Terrible...! Those lemon trees you pictured look gorgeous! I hope you catch the culprits that stole the lemons, but your wishes for them were indeed priceless..!

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

Oh Scintilla, that is so awful, why do people stoop so low, or in this climb the ladder!!!!

I agree with you, whatever your lemon thief/thieves decide to do with YOUR lemons, oh hope it all goes wrong, so bad of them... :-(

Anonymous said...

I am shocked to hear this is the first time it happens to you. We have gardens in Montepertuso an dalways harvest half what we plant.
ANother LOVELY side of POsitano, right people?!!
dollyna

MsGourmet said...

What a bastardo!

Lisa at Wanderlust Women said...

Oh, I'm sure he or she planned to leave you a bottle of the new batch of limoncello. :)
BTW - Your floral pics are to die for!

Jamie said...

Che schiffo! Bastardo (as Ms Gourmet so aptly put it)! That's terrible.

Jamie said...

Che schiffo! Bastardo (as Ms Gourmet so aptly put it)! That's terrible.

Unknown said...

Terrible... I like your curse though & hope it works.

Beautiful, beautiful pictures.

peenkfrik said...

I hate that. Reminds me of the children who climb over our fence and steal the mangoes.

I want some lemon in my food but this variety is a little expensive here. I envy your garden but not enough to make me steal. :)

LindyLouMac said...

Ladro di limoni! What ever next!

Your photos are beautiful, I think the lemons from the Amalfi region are so special. Makes our one lemon tree look so puny.

The Food Hunter said...

How horrible!

Trubes said...

Hello BA, my first visit to your site and I have been captivated by your lovely pictures and writing.
May the curse of the lemon thieves, follow them wherever they are.

I love Lemons tooand alway smuggle some home when we visit The Med.
We do pay for them at local markets...honest!

Di.

casalba said...

What a b*mmer!
Your lemon pergola is to die for! And your lemons don't look as though they will be dry, lacking in flavour or full of pips.

Anonymous said...

That's terrible. Those lemons look absolutely fabulous.

deedee said...

Oh no! And I'm all out of lemons and don't want to buy grocery store lemons from south america...

Chef Chuck said...

The photos make me pucker! Lemons Lemons we all need lemons!! The Amalfi has the best in the world!

Sarah said...

oh no!that's a beautiful lemon tree and garden you have even without the lemons. A few years ago we had a huge passionfruit vine which was loaded with almost ripe fruit. It climbed all over the neighbors fence and one morning, without telling me he cut it all down with all the beautiful fruits on it. He told me he didn't know it was edible.

joe@italyville said...

what goes around, comes around... may carma catch up to him/her.

Emily said...

Oh no! They stole your lemons? That's awful! Even in such abundance, those lemons are like gold...

Devon Dudgeon said...

The lemons on the Amalfi coast are the best. I swear I have daydreams about them every time I see the scrawny lemons in our local grocery store.

My boyfriend and I walked up the mountain from Amalfi to Ravello and we saw some gorgeous lemon trees along the way. There weren't many people around since most sensible people would just drive or take a bus. However, we came across a couple that was on their way down; they were looking very sheepish because they had their hands full of lemons which they'd obviously stolen...I guess they weren't expecting to see anyone else climbing up the back way!