The Meyer Lemon

Recently I discovered a new type of lemon (well new for me at least) at the supermarket, called a Meyer lemon. The bag of bright yellow lemons caught my eye and so I grabbed a bag to take home. I did some research on these lemons. They are not true lemons, as they are a cross between a real lemon and a mandarin orange. This results in a bright yellow color, with a thin rind, that is so thin you could eat it if you wanted to. They are very juicy.

The major difference between a regular lemon and a Meyer one is that, the Meyer variety is far less acidic, and more sweet. They probably are still too tart to just peel and eat like an orange, but feel free to try that for yourself.

Meyer lemons were discovered by China by Frank Meyer, who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. His job was to go to China and to look for new types of plants to bring back to the US. One of the plants he found was a Meyer lemon. The next big break in the history the Meyer lemon was by Martha Stewart. Until she began using them in recipes, you could not find them if you live far away from Florida, Arizona, or California. They are more fragile than regular lemons, so shipping is more challenging. But thanks in a large part to Martha you can find them at stores nationwide or online. I found them at a Meijer (notice the spelling difference) store here in Michigan.

As for uses, you can do with them anything you do with a regular lemon, such as lemonade, lemon curd, and lemon bars just to give a few sweet examples. They also make a great addition to poultry dishes. Look for them in your local mega mart, and see why people are raving about these lemons.