Gift Basket

Neighborhood Gift Basket

My neighbor has an amazing lemon tree and every couple of months I am gifted a bag of lemons.  I too give them away, bake with them, slice and freeze them, etc.  Before Christmas I taught a Gifts from the Garden class and created Limoncello using my neighbor's lemons. 
 When the last bag arrived about Christmas time I made my neighbor and his wife a batch.  There are many recipes on the internet so for my class, I made a quick version (5 days) and then a longer version (about a month).  The ladies in the class said the quick version was stronger and the longer batch more mellow.  I let this batch ferment for almost two months. 

Being the crafter that I am and getting back into my love of shrink plastic, I created a quick label using some clip art I found on the internet, added their names, printed it off and shrunk it.  If you're not familiar with shrink plastic, it starts out very thin and when you place it in the oven it shrinks in about five minutes to the thickness of a nickel and very hard.  Perfect for jewelry, gift tags, cupcake picks, etc., etc.  I LOVE it!

 The tag turned out great!  Follow the instructions on the shrink plastic package and you'll get good results.

 In addition to the Limoncello, I made this a 'Harry & David and Neighborhood' basket.  I was given a box of Harry and David pears so I added in some of those, I included some pickled green beans from my garden, an avocado from a neighbor's tree, an amaryllis from my yard and some Rosemary and Lemon Cookies made from my neighbor's lemons and rosemary from another neighbor's yard.

My neighbor was so surprised when I took over the basket last night. Random acts of kindness make my heart sing...