REAL Lemonade and The Animal Power of a Lemonade Stand

Hi everyone and please click on the title of this post to read more. I’m going to cut to the chase tonight because I walked into my wall and my head hurts: How hard is it to make real, authentic lemonade? If we are going to help our kids do a cute little lemonade stand for fun this summer, why on earth would we miss out on the opportunity to show them that it doesn’t need to be Country Time Brand? It is a fun process to squeeze many lemons(unless you have cuts on your hands like my friend Lauren and I -sheesh, that smarts!)and it keeps the kids from begging to watch Spongebob for at least a little while.

I actually ran a lemonade stand when I was about 8 years old, with my friend, Christy, with NO adults present on the corner of 41st and 2nd Avenue and raised a ton of money. It was exhilarating!

Add in a bit of fundraising with your lemonade stand and it is an all around great activity to teach how to sell to others, how to give to others, how to work as a team with different jobs (zesting the lemons, hawking from the corner, sneaking the lemonade when they got thirsty, etc.), how to make change, how to market a product as well as prepare a treat that is healthier than the version they have all come to love but that is much less wholesome.

Yeah, everyone else uses Country Time Brand and yeah, it’s easier to just buy the carton, but we don’t need to conform, we can kick it old school…..

My creative friend Lauren invited us over to prepare and run the stand for a local animal shelter and we raised $26.00. We visited the shelter today with all the kids and they got to learn first hand where their hard earned money went. Thanks, Lauren, and thanks to all the people running lemonade stands with kids so that they can enjoy what every kid should at least once in their childhood -but with REAL LEMONS AND REAL SUGAR!!!!
P.S. Here is the link to the animal shelter if you want to learn more about it or make a donation:
http://www.westorange.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC;={0F617C83-6C12-474B-87C6-C7922070328E}&DE;={E2FE6165-F3B2-4FC0-935A-96EF2E6DBE0D}

Real Lemonade:

1 bag lemons, approx. 1 lb,around 8 lemons, juiced (zested and freeze the zest if you have the time!)
Big Pitcher of water
sugar syrup (boil one cup of sugar and one cup of water, stir sugar until dissolved and remove from heat-store in a bottle or jar)

Add water to lemon juice and slowly pour in sugar syrup to desired sweetness. Save leftover syrup for another day. If you want to be fancy, add a mint leaf but don’t charge extra…..

http://www.youtube.com/get_player