Lemonography

A combination of random, useless and useful information, in no particular order, pertaining to the lemon.

Brought to you by Italy’s #1 Selling Limoncello

1. For fashionistas, lemon yellow is the new black: this season check out Tory Burch’s lemon yellow flats, Marc Jacobs’ lemon-yellow floral print dress, The Gap’s yellow Converse sneakers, Steve Madden’s glam yellow pumps, Moschino’s bright yellow car coat, and MAC cosmetics’ Golden Yellow pigment powder.

2. Lemon juice contains about five percent citric acid.

3. The average lemon holds about three tablespoons of juice.

4. In February and March, the people of the French Riviera town Menton celebrated the 75th annual Lemon Festival. Events included parades of lemon floats and acrobats, and an Indian-themed lemon carnival.

5. The Lemon Shark is so named for its yellowish skin, and swims in waters from New Jersey to Senegal in Africa.

6. During the fifteenth century, sailors consumed lemons to fight off scurvy. The English mandated that all warships and trade vessels provide the fruit, leading to the sailors’ nickname: “limeys”.

7. Lemon oil is often used on the unsealed rosewood fingerboards of guitars and other stringed instruments.

8. Sephora.com lists 115 lemon-containing beauty products on its website – toothpaste, eye shadow and men’s moisturizer among them.

9. The Meyer lemon, a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, is originally from China but was patented in the US in 1908 by Frank Meyer, who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. The season for Meyer lemons is very short: winter until early spring.

10. The drink named for golf legend Arnold Palmer is made from combining equal parts lemonade and iced tea; a “Tom Arnold” adds vodka — in any quantity — to the mix.

11. The acidity in lemons can power a standard LCD; to power a standard flashlight bulb, you would need about 500 lemons wired in parallel.

12. Sprinkling lemon juice on sliced apples, avocados and bananas will help keep them from oxidizing and turning brown.

13. Other plants that taste or smell like lemon: lemon grass, lemon balm, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, scented geraniums, certain cultivars of basil, and certain cultivars of mint.

14. One lemon contains about 15 calories and 0 grams of fat.

15. One pound of lemons contains about 130 calories.

16. The average lemon has about eight seeds.

17. Lemons are high in vitamin C, which is known to boost the immune system, protect against heart disease, combat cancer, and fight infection.

18. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world's heaviest lemon weighed 11 pounds, 9.7 ounces, and was harvested on January 8, 2003 by Israeli farmer Aharon Shemoel.

19. To choose a good lemon, look for thin-skinned fruit that is heavy for its size and uniformly yellow.

20. Lemons stay fresh at room temperature, away from sunlight, for about one week. In the refrigerator crisper, they can keep for about a month.

21. It is said that the citric acid in lemon juice will dissolve a pearl.

22. Take heart, Apple Martin (daughter of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin), Peaches Geldof (daughter of musician Bob Geldof and late TV host Paula Yates) and Clementine Shephard-Ford (daughter of actress Cybil Shephard): in the early part of the 20th century, Lemon was a common first name. There were thousands of American boys and girls named Lemon in the 1900 census.

23. Surprise: lemons are technically berries (as are oranges, watermelons and tomatoes).

24. Lemon was among the first eight flavors of Jelly Belly jelly beans, launched in 1976.

25. The word lemon is believed to have been derived from Asian language words for "sour" or "sour fruit."

26. For natural highlights, apply lemon juice to your hair daily for a week.

27. A lemon tree produces fruit almost all year long and can bear as many as 3,000 lemons annually.

28. California produces more lemons than all of Europe.

29. More than 90% of the lemons purchased in the U.S. are one of three kinds: Eureka, Lisbon and Bearss. All three are similar in flavor and hard to tell apart.

30. California produces about 87% of the U.S. lemon crop, with an annual production of about 754,000 tons – that’s a fraction of the state’s orange production, which is about 2.1 million tons.

31. About 70% of the nation’s lemons are consumed fresh; the remaining 30% is processed.

32. In 2006, the average American consumed 3.96 pounds of lemons.

33. In 2006, U.S. lemons retailed for about $1.55 a pound, up from $1.23 a pound in 2004.

34. In the 1990s, Americans’ per capita lemon juice consumption averaged 0.14 gallons. In the 2000s, it has averaged 0.16 gallons.

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