From my kitchen in Chicago, I posted an ad on Craigslist in Los Angeles asking to trade my jams and preserves for Meyer lemons.
I got this great response:
You probably had no intention of doing this, but you taught me what type of lemon I have in my back yard. They are round, sweet almost orange lemons, and I always thought they were a weird hybrid of orange and lemon....but now I know they are "meyer lemons". I call it my "lemon bush" because it's literally a big bush, and it produces lemons like no other....they are small and sweet and nearly orange.
About a week later, I had a box of Meyer lemons in my kitchen.
In return for the lemons, Kay — my West Coast citrus supplier — got a jar of strawberry jam and a jar of blackberry preserves. And a Fruit Slinger card. Because I am a putz. And I have a ton of those fuckers still lying around.
The lemons I turned into marmalade. Making preserves is much more appealing when it's 3 degrees outside and not 93.
I got one last email from Kay:
How funny is this....my good friend lives around the corner and she too has a meyer.....I had to tell her that it was a meyer lemon tree!