I’m very fortunate to have a Meyer lemon tree within arm’s length in my next-door neighbor’s garden. I’m also lucky that she lets me have as many lemons as I want. Winter is citrus time here in California, and the tree is loaded at the moment with delicious-smelling fruit. Each winter I try to juice as many as I can (for use in cooking all through the year), preserve some whole lemons with salt, and often I also dry slices for tea or for cooking. And, of course, it’s not winter vacation without some scones, cream, and lemon curd.

Curd is very easy to make, it takes about 15 minutes, and then you have a delicious puckery sweet treat to have for the week with scones, muffins, toast, or to stir into yogurt.

“Lemon Curd, adapted from Food 52
makes about two cups

3 large whole eggs
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (3-4 lemons depending on the size)
1/2 cup sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Whisk eggs into a small saucepan (nonreactive). Whisk in juice, sugar, and zest. Add the butter. Heat over medium heat, whisking almost constantly, getting into all the corners. The butter will melt, and soon after the mixture will thicken and begin to simmer around the edges. When it thickens to your liking, whisk about ten seconds longer, then decant into jars or ramekins and chill in fridge before using. It’ll keep for about a week in the fridge. (We never strain our curd because we like the zest; if you don’t, you can strain after cooking. The egg will not scramble as it heats, because the sugar and juice will stabilize it, so there is no need to strain unless you don’t like the zest.)”

We believe lemon curd tastes best on plain, not-too-sweet scones. We also like clotted cream, but that takes days to make, so often we’ll just whip cream (with a little powdered sugar) until it surpasses the soft peaks of whipped cream and moves into a more solid consistency - not quite butter, but ‘harder’ than whipped cream typically is. This gives us the moist creamy thing we like with the sharpness of the custard.

“Authentic British Scones, adapted from Curious Cuisiniere

2 cups AP flour
2 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks, cold
2/3 cup milk
1 egg yolk beaten with one Tbsp milk (to glaze)

Preheat oven to 425. In a food processor,* place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and chunks of butter. Pulse until the butter resembles small peas or coarse cornmeal. Add in the milk, while pulsing, a little at a time. You may need a bit less or a bit more. The mixture should just come together and be sticky.

Turn out onto a floured board and pat into a circle, about 1” thick. Cut out rounds - I used a 2” circle cutter, but whatever you have will work. It should make about 9-10 scones depending on the size of your circles. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with milk/egg glaze. Bake for 12-15 minutes (12 minutes is good for my oven) - scones should be golden brown on top. Let rest for 30 minutes on the sheet, on a cooling rack. For softer scones, place a tea towel over them as they cool.

Serve with butter, or curd, or cream, or jam, or all of the above. Great with afternoon tea!

*If you don’t have a food processor, just use your fingers or a pastry cutter. ”

This concludes my series of monthly seasonal recipes. I’ve enjoyed trying to distill each month into one or two items found in our garden at that time of year, whatever we are craving and most enjoy eating during that season. Part of eating seasonally (and from the garden) is that you eat a lot of what’s available at that time, until you absolutely can’t eat any more of it. Then you miss it until it’s available again. I’m already craving the fresh tomatoes and cucumbers of summer! When you eat this way, you get a varied set of nutrients over the course of a year. Naturally, I couldn’t incorporate every vegetable or fruit that we grow - that would take an entire cookbook. I also left out things like salads and sautéed greens, figuring you can manage those without a recipe. These recipes have just been highlights - there’s plenty more to explore where seasonal cooking is concerned! See my recommendations for a list of cookbooks that I like very much and use often, though I also use several online sites such as Smitten Kitchen and Alexandra Cooks, frequently. Also, I would encourage you to experiment. And then let me know the results, so I can make it and enjoy it too!

Here’s a recap:

January - using up a stored supply of goods

February - the chickens begin to lay again

March - roots and buds

April - baby artichokes

May - summer cake

June - cherry tomatoes and blueberries (and foccacia)

July - fruit desserts, canning, pickling

August - part one - preserved peppers and pimento cheese

August - part two - Tomato Galette

September - delicata sausage casserole

October - more winter squash recipes