Improving Lemon Quality

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)

Improving Lemon Quality

TF gathered before the colour begins to turn, at what is known as the " silver " stage, properly-cured lemons may be kept for a considerable period, and will improve in quality through a thinning and toughening of the skin, and increase in the juice > content. The curing of the fruit may be accomplished in several simple ways. IX gathered and placed m a pile under lowheaded trees, the lemons will process well and come out with a good colour, and excellent quality if the variety is a good one. Some trust wholly to openair curing, merely protecting the piles of fruit With a light covering of straw or fern Others let the fruit lie a tew days under the trees, carefully snaded from the sun, and then place in shallow boxes or trays, and keep tor months in 3, darkened room. Gathering the fruit while still green, when it reaches a size of about three inches in diameter, and packing in alternate layers with dry sand, has also given good results. Another method is to wrap each lemon separately in a piece of newspaper and store in boxes. The proj>er conditions for keeping lemons lie just between the points where they will wilt, and where they will sweat, inducing neither if possible. Too much moisture induces decay, while too little will encourage shrivelling. The fragment of stem left on the fruit may be used as a test; if it adheres tho conditions nre right for slow curing if it detacheß easily the best keeping quality is not being assured. Of the finer points in lemon handling there is much that may bo learned by experience. One of the greatest troubles in the keeping of lemons is tho incidence of blue mould... The spores of this fungus gain an entrance to tho fruit through wounds or punctures of the skin. For this reason the greatest care should be taken, when picking, to avoid injury. It is usual to cut the fruits from the tree, not pull them.

Two cuts are made with the secateurs, one to cut the fruit from the tree, the second to cut the stalk close to the button. If a portion of the stem is left on the fruit it is liable to puncture the skin of other fruits with which it may come in contact. It is advisable to immerse the fruit in a disinfecting fluid to rid it of any spores of the mould. Ths fluid may be either bluestone —one ounce dissolved in 40 gallons of water —or permanganate of potash in . the same proportions. The curing of lemons for commercial purposes must of necessity bo on a different scale, but the general principle is the same except that in the factories the lemons are washed in warm water and then immersed in a borax solution while the fruit is still warm. It has been found that tho borax solution will not adhere to the fruit when cold, and better results are achioved by immersing while the pores of the skin are still open from the washing.