I love how the word glut is used to describe the crop from an overladen fruit tree. We raided Auntie Rachel's lemon tree and so once again we have a similar scenario one to one of my favourite books as a kid, Jam by Margaret Mahy. Mr Castle's plum tree is so full of plums that he fills every vessel in the house (from vases to tea cups) with plum jam. This is what is is like when we get an influx of lemons. Lemon curd on toast, lemon cake and now that summer is here we lemonade syrup has been added to the mix

Mum makes this adaptation of an Annabel Langbien recipe which she keeps in then mixes with cold soda water when in need of a refreshing bevvie. This syrup keeps for yonks, just make sure you keep it in the fridge and away from the ants!

Summer Lemonade

Loosely adapted from Annabel Langbein's recipe in The Free Range Cook

6 cups white sugar

3 cups water

Zest of 4 large juicy lemons

Juice of 4 large juicy lemons (just over 1 cup of juice)

1 tablespoon of citric or tartaric acid

Soda water to serve

In a large saucepan, simmer together the water and the sugar until the water has dissolved. Once dissolved add in the lemon juice and zest, bring to a strong simmer and continue to bubble away for around five minutes until the mix becomes syrupy but still retains the light yellow colour. Leave to cool slightly before transferring into a clean bottle for storage. If you are planning on keeping this sealed for longer than a month at ambient temperatures then make sure you use a sterilised vessel. Leave to chill in the fridge and serve with icy soda water when needed.

Enjoy! x