C - Lemon Ladies Orchard

welcome home
Karen snips fruit
from her orchard.
She leaves light
yellow and green
lemons on the
trees to ripen.
J
Hand-scrubbed
and trimmed, these
fresh pickings get a
personal touch.
ust driving by, you’d never know that Karen Morss
harvests 3 tons of Meyer lemons from 40 trees in
her backyard. Her Lemon Ladies Orchard in Emerald
Hills, California, hugs a south-facing slope like a
fragrant secret garden.
“The Meyer is a cross between a lemon and
mandarin orange,” Karen says. “It tastes sweeter and
more floral than other lemons.” Biting into a wedge,
you can taste the difference—not quite as puckery.
Ripe Meyer lemons are golden yellow with a slight orange tint. With
thin, smooth skin, they must be handled carefully. Karen and four
neighborhood kids give the lemons plenty of TLC as they harvest,
wash and ship about 300 pounds each week November through April.
[love it]
Farmer-Come-Lately
A California grower makes more than lemonade
from the sunny Meyers in her orchard.
Home-Based Operation
When Life
Gives You
Lemons…
“Hello, Amelia,” Karen says, parting thick foliage that hides clusters of
lemons. “I named each tree after a woman who inspired me or helped
me achieve my goals in life—hence my orchard’s name.” Amelia’s
namesake is aviator Earhart. Karen became a pilot after working 20 years
in the software industry. She met husband Dave, a test pilot and air racer,
and bought and operated a flight school for five years.
She’d planned to subdivide this property to help finance her
retirement, but the irregular shape made that unworkable. “That’s when
I got the crazy idea to plant Meyer lemons,” she recalls, even though “all
I knew about them was the fabulous fruit we got from one little tree
planted outside our kitchen door.”
In 2004, Karen put in a drip irrigation system and planted 2-year-old
dwarf Meyer lemon trees. It’s best not to harvest for the first few years,
so she hired two neighbor girls to help her pick off all the blossoms,
directing all the trees’ energy into growth. Her patience paid off in the
2007-2008 harvest—a whopping 6,000 pounds!
The lemons get washed in Karen’s living room. She squirts organic
dishwashing liquid into a plastic tub half-full of cool water and dumps
By Ann Kaiser • Photography by Anne Hamersky
22
Co u n t ry Wo m a n
COUNTRYWOMANMAGAZINE.COM
February
I March 2016
C o u n t ry Wo m a n
23
welcome home
Why Meyer?
In the early 1900s, USDA plant
scientist/explorer Frank N.
Meyer identified a citrus tree
in China thought to be a cross
between a lemon and a
mandarin orange. Fruits from
the plants he brought back to
California became known as
Meyer lemons.
Meyer lemons in by the bucketful.
(Karen’s orchard is Certified
Naturally Grown and uses no
synthetic chemicals).
Karen and her crew clean each
lemon with small soft brushes that
fit over the hand, using light
diagonal strokes to avoid scraping
the skin and releasing the essential
oil. Stems get trimmed close and flat so they won’t puncture other lemons
when packed.
The small team works fast, washing 300 pounds of lemons in about two
hours. Then they spread the rinsed lemons on the towel-covered dining
room table to air-dry—a sunshine-bright still life!
A Sweeter Pucker
Of course, some of those lemons make their way into Karen’s kitchen.
“You can use Meyers in any recipes calling for lemon,” she says. “Since
they’re sweeter, I cut back a little on any added sugar.”
Her lemonade, below, is perfectly sweet-tart. She shares other recipes,
including mouth-watering marmalade and sweet limoncello, on her
website, lemonladies.com. (You can also order her Meyer lemons
there.) Karen is convinced that the lemons from her orchard are so sweet
because each of her “lemon ladies” has a special name and gets lots of
love and sunshine. n
Meet the
Lemon Ladies
Each tree in Karen’s
orchard is named
for a woman who
has inspired her and
is represented by a
painted tile on Karen’s
kitchen wall. Some
tiles were painted by
the trees’ namesakes,
and others Karen
painted herself.
Sister Michael
Maureen, a beloved
teacher from Karen’s
childhood in Pennsylvania.
Kalpana Chawla,
Karen’s Meyer
Lemon Lemonade
Karen always keeps a cool and
refreshing pitcher at the ready in
her refrigerator.
MAKES: 10 servings
2 cups Meyer lemon juice
(about 12 lemons)
1/2
1 cups sugar
6 to 8 cups cold water
In a 3-qt. pitcher, combine lemon
juice and sugar. Let stand 30
minutes to dissolve sugar, stirring
occasionally. Stir in water to taste;
serve over ice.
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Co u n t ry Wo m a n
an Indian-born astronaut
tragically lost on the space
shuttle Columbia.
Martha Stewart,
because “when she started
featuring recipes using Meyer
lemons, cooks everywhere
wanted them!” Karen says.
@
Say hello to
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farm women
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