When God gives you lemons, make lemonade!

An abundance of fresh lemons in the garden should never go to waste!

makes about 64 cups or more 
prep time:  1/2 hour

16 or so lemons to produce 4 cups of fresh juice
4 cups sugar
4 cups water
Additional water and ice to serve

This recipe comes by way of someone's son, who got it by way of his mother, who thinks she got it via the internet from Simply Recipes, a wonderful blog by Elise Bauer. It is the inspiration for this version of lemonade.  The ingredients and their amounts are hers, but for convenience in serving a large audience, I decided to take liberties with the prep.  The joy of this is when the beverage runs low, simply add more lemonade mix, water, and ice. 

The amounts listed for ingredients are easily reduced for a smaller quantity.  1 cup simple syrup to 1 cup lemon juice, for example.  Add water and ice and enjoy.

Juice the lemons and set the juice aside.  Add sugar and water to a sauce pan and cook while stirring very gently over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the solution is clear.  This is simple syrup.

The syrup should be clear.

Mix equal parts simple syrup to fresh lemon juice for your lemonade mixture.  For each amount of lemonade you prepare, I recommend about 1 cup lemonade mixture to 8 cups water.  Add ice.  You be the judge.  If you like lemonade stronger, add more of the mix.  Ice will dilute your lemonade so be mindful of that.

Super refreshing!

Each glass of lemonade provides about 50 calories.  I usually don't post this type of recipe because, for obvious reasons, it can't serve diabetics or others who are sugar restricted.  But, I just could not stand the idea of serving powdery chemical-laden pseudo-lemonade to the melodrama audience and players after making every other dish from scratch.  There you have it.  Occasionally we have to splurge.  Just not too often!

- Kim Fielding