make the magic! Sitting at Connie’s kitchen table, we start peeling 1 bushel of the organic lemons that have been floating in dish soap! We rinse them well and peel the thinnest possible rind strips, avoiding the bitter white pith, into our cherished jars. We usually fill the jars 4-5 inches deep for a 2-gallon jar or until our hands ache so much we give up and decide it is enough! Next, we fill the jars with Vodka. Some recipes call for Everclear. I will never forget the year we decided to give the Everclear a try. We walked into a local liqueur store, and no one offered to help us. In case I didn’t mention it, we are in our seventies, and we seemed to be invisible to the young store clerks. One of them was high on a ladder. I eyed the Everclear on the top shelf and yelled up to him, “I want to buy some Everclear!” He looked concerned, glanced down at us, and didn’t hesitate to ask if we knew what we were buying? I assured him we did, and he reached to the very top shelf to grab us a bottle. As we were paying him, he couldn’t resist asking us what we would do with it. “It is 190 proof, you know?” I assured him we were professional moonshiners! That year, we made two versions, one with Vodka and one with Everclear. Though it is difficult to admit, the Everclear was a bit too strong even for us! The hardest part of the entire process is lifting the heavy jars and placing them on the coat closet floor, where they will stay in the dark for 2-4 weeks. Step two is my favorite. Connie makes sugar water, then makes sure it has thoroughly cooled. With a colander over a large stainless steel bowl, we pour the vodka into the colander, catching the peels which we set aside. Next, we start adding ladles of sugar water until we achieve the desired sweetness. At this point, we are feeling very Limoncello mellow! We pour the yellow gold into gift bottles that we store in the freezer until we hand them out.
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