Thread: Preserved Lemons in Honey. Old School Kiwi Bushy Style

Was asked to post the'recipe' l use for preserving Lemons after the great season we have had for them this year,just made another batch so here it is .

One of the benefits of us having easy access to good local hunting properties & having friends keen to take any excess Venison, is we are gifted beautiful Manuka honey & other home grown produce including Lemons in return .


Makes a fantastic tea sweetener, sore throat sorter & topper for some ice cream or addition to just water or something stronger,also great on toast/crumpets or Hot Toddy . I also like it on a hot day with a Scotch or Rum & Soda, with a lot of ice & a bit of this lemon in it ,great drink to have while on BBQ/Smoker duty .I actually grab a 2 Ltr bottle of soda water ,load with scotch & this lemon to taste ,freeze & take in the boat when fishing .

Lasts for a year easy in the fridge but will all be gone long before that ,once you try it.

The combination of Lemon & Honey makes great gut Probiotics & vitamin boost ,the old Kiwi Bushies use to swear by it & when l started out shearing in the 80's was a common water flavorer ,energy booster .

For years now when l am cutting wood in the bush, l always take a thermos & add it to my cuppa's



Ingredients 3 lemons & roughly (every thing is rough when l am cooking )1 cup of honey, large screw top jar .

Cut Lemons in to roughly 6 mm-1/4 inch slices or what ever suits ya .

Layer a few slices of lemon in the bottom of your jar, drizzle over a large spoonful of honey. Continue to layer up until you run out of lemon slices. Add another spoonful or two of honey and set the brew aside to ferment for a day or two on the bench.

Shake or stir the jar daily. After a few days you should start tasting the syrup, and once you like the flavour, (or after a maximum of two weeks) you can move your jar to the refrigerator & am told it will last a year, but at our farm 3-4 months for the 6 jars l make in a batch, before we run out/give away

If you leave the mixture too long it can move from a simple pro-biotic ferment to a yeast-driven type of Kiwi Bushy Bastard mead, still safe to eat just probably not best to add to your cuppa while cutting firewood or may be it is

That's a recipe even I can get right.
On tomorrows list. We have just had some honey dropped off to us, so perfect timing.

Im gonna give that a go.

Just done 1 jar, honey I used is some dark coloured stuff given to us by a bee keeper when we had hives on the farm we worked on. So far the rest of the family have given the thumbs down, I will wait for the taste test and report back

Only a day in but it tastes bloody good. Kids who are adults gave it a try and liked it. Wifey who has a cough and had to go for covid test to get a sick note for work gave me that look that you all know when I said try this. After trying it see sent a text to the kids who are shopping right now to bring some honey for my task tomorrow to make more.
This is good after 1 day looking forward to a few more day brewing. Do try it