I am blessed with two lemon trees and we are in the prime of lemons right now! Despite the harsh winter, the  trees and fruit survived. Our oranges are about done, so now we are onto lemons!  You can, of course, just squeeze some lemons and add some sugar and water and have decent lemonade. But I find the sugar doesn’t dissolve well in the cold water. If you make a simple sugar syrup instead, it’s much better!

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar

Bring this to a slow simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then cool.

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 quart cold water

Meanwhile squeeze enough lemons to get about 1 cup of lemon juice  or a bit more if you like it a bit tart like we do.  Add 1 quart or so of cold water and some ice to the lemon juice. Stir together.

My youngest added half a fresh squeezed orange to her glass and loved the combo. We’ve got just a dozen or so oranges left on the tree.