Growing Lemons for Lemon Meringue Pie

I wrote an article for The Cambrian published on April 15. It covered the growing of lemons and limes in our cool climate. Oranges and grapefruits need heat to sweeten. They are not good candidates for a coastal climate that seldom gets over 75 degrees. I also wrote about chlorosis (the yellowing of leaves) in citrus and how, with the addition of nutrients, this condition can be avoided.

All the time I was writing, my mouth was watering. The thought of making a lemon meringue pie like my mother used to make came to me. I seldom make pies anymore. Spending half a day to make a pie, then watching everyone scarf it down in 20 minutes, is discouraging. My excuse today: I needed a dessert for my husband’s birthday. I looked through my cookbooks and on the internet (who needs cookbooks anymore?) and ended up with a recipe published by Alton Brown. I liked this particular recipe because it used only cornstarch in the filling instead of cornstarch and flour. I don’t much care for the texture of flour in cream fillings.

The pie came out beautifully except for the filling was not as firm as I’d like. Could that be a result of using cornstarch only rather than cornstarch and flour? The yolks of the fresh eggs from our hens made the pie a rich, gold color. It a fairly easy recipe. The only tricky part was “slowly” pouring the hot mixture into the whisked egg yolks with one hand, while holding the camera steady and taking pictures with the other! It only took an hour to make this lemon meringue pie. We’ll see how long it will take to eat it!