I am numbering each week by the time period that has elapsed since canning the jar. I.e., this is “Week 1” because one week has elapsed since I first made the preserves.
Per Abby’s instructions, I have been shaking my jar of lemon rinds and juice every day this week. After shaking, I have turned the jar either right-side up or upside down, depending on which way it started.
I have been shaking like so:
But last night, I started to get nervous when I turned my jar upside down. The jar, which had started completely full of juice, was only half full! As you can see from the picture below, an entire lemon would be left out of the juice if I kept the jar upside down like this. 
So, I opted to keep the jar right-side up, even though it had already spent the day like that. I figured this is OK because Abby said the most important part is making sure the juice and salt are not pooling on one end of the jar. That’s why we shake the jar every day – to mix up the juices, rinds, and salt.
Also, it seems the salt has fully dissolved at this point, so I’m not too worried about it getting stuck at the bottom. I think that has also made the juice look cloudier than it did when I first canned the lemons and juice. Here is a picture of my jar last night after I turned it back to its regular position:
The lemons are almost completely submerged, though the top is still uncovered. Originally, when realizing there was less juice, I thought maybe the rinds had absorbed about half of the juice. But once I turned it right-side up, I started to think maybe it’s just the lid holding more of the juice when the jar is upside down.
I’m not sure why I didn’t notice it previously.
Tonight, the lemon preserves will go in the fridge. I’m curious to see how the juice and the rinds start to form into a solid preserve, but that will likely take a few more weeks.
Apparently, the rinds become so soft that you can easily eat and spread them. Right now, they still look like whole lemons, so I’m a bit skeptical on how that will happen.
As a note, I’m also not looking up any other recipes or processes for creating lemon preserves. I am going purely on Abby’s instructions, as part of this experiment. Until next week, everyone!
This blog is part of a series documenting the progress of my lemon preserves, which I created at a Moishe House Northern Virginia event.
To read the introductory post, click here.
To read Week 2, click here.
To read Week 3, click here.
To read Taste Test, click here.
