Can green lemons be ripened off the tree?

I have been pruning my espalier lemon tree today, and have pruned off about 20 green lemons (see here for why espaliered fruit trees are great in a cottage kitchen garden).

Never one to waste home grown produce, I always hang my green tomatoes at the end of the season to ripen them, so now I’m curious as to whether I can do the same with my lemons.

There are a two main methods advised, which directly conflict with each other! What a surprise right? Imagine us gardeners actually agreeing with each other about something. Pfft, preposterous!

The two suggested ways to ripen green lemons off the tree are:

– place in a dark spot, like an enclosed box

– place on a sunny windowsill

Instead of deciding which of these I would use, I decided to try both! For science, no less.

So I have popped half in a box, half on a windowsill. I will be checking in and taking some pics of each group’s progress. So we can finally put this controversy to a nicely mulched bed.

Update

Well I know why these two methods cause an argument! They both work. None of my lemons were as firm as one ripened on the tree, but they were definitely ripened and useable.

I had enough for a lovely big batch of Meyer Lemon Curd – yum!!!!