I freeze limes whole when I have too many, but I have a Bearss lime tree, which produces larger and juicier limes. If I want zest later, I zest the limes frozen, but I have to use a Microplane to do this and not a vegetable peeler - that is the only drawback. I defrost the limes by putting them in the MW for 10 seconds at a time.

I use limes in a lot of Mexican dishes, but usually only one at a time. I prefer lime in guacamole, and I also prefer lime in Caesar dressing.

Limes are good for chimichurra sauce and also for making Ponzu sauce and marinades with ginger, garlic, and soy sauce for a Japanese flavor.

You could also make large quantities of limeade.

I have this recipe on file but haven't tried it. Sounds pretty easy and tasty. Know that you can also freeze the juice and zest, if necessary. You can also use key limes for any recipe calling for standard limes.

Spring Lime Tea Cookies

2 teaspoons lime juice

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons lime zest

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 cup white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the 2 teaspoons of lime juice with the milk, let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the lime zest and milk mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda, blend into the creamed mixture. Drop by rounded spoonfuls ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, stir together the remaining lime juice and sugar. Brush onto cooled cookies.

ETA - Recipe says this makes about 24 cookies.

Just thought of something I have made many times, if the tequila suits you. This is a tasty marinade for either shrimp or chicken.

Tequila-Lime Marinade

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup tequila
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 large or 2 small shallots, finely chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 T. chopped cilantro (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup olive oil

This one from Ina Garten is another good one I've used.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tequila-lime-chicken-recipe-1941250

Lucky you!

Limeade uses a lot 😊

And I use lime juice for anything and everything you'd use lemon juice for, like cut fruit, or fish. I coat chicken with lime juice, then a spice blend before roasting. My fave these days is Old Bay.

And roasted potatoes and beets really benefit from a squeeze of lime juice after they come out of the oven.

FWIW, I haven't had very good results from freezing whole Key Limes - they went bitter before I could use them all. They're so perishable. I think that's why old sour is a staple in Key West - it's a way to preserve them.

https://www.naplesillustrated.com/key-lime-fun-old-sour/

You can also preserve the limes in vodka to make Aquavit.

I have a great recipe for key lime cake if you want it. Be careful while reaming the limes. they can be incredibly acidic and will melt skin...

Our key lime tree produces hundreds of limes every year, and we are never able to use them all. We juice the excess, and then keep a bottle of juice in the fridge to cook with, the rest of the juice we freeze into ice cubes. We use the juice all the time and it is handy to have some ready to go.

Make lime butter. You could freeze it. So good on top of a baked sweet potato.

I too have a Mexican Lime tree and am reading these ideas with great interest.

Lynda - Wow, that is a lot of limes. I am on the CA Central Coast in Aptos. Where are you? You must get more heat than I do.

Mojitos

No, not a lot of heat at all, but I am further south. I am in Goleta, just west of Santa Barbara and 1/4 mile from the ocean. We are in the low 70s a good chunk of the year - cool summers and warm winters. We planted our Key Lime in 1997, and it has been producing like crazy for the last 15 years. We have a second home in Cambria and are planning to plant a key lime there as soon as we complete the fencing for our front yard. Cambria is 3 to 4 degrees cooler on average, but we are hoping that our citrus will flourish there as well.

My limes are beginning to ripen - picked the first one yesterday! There are lots too - thinking I might be trying some of the recipes posted here 🙂

Do you all wait for them to slip off the stem or do you pick them before that? Lynda's pic appears to have varying degrees of ripe limes.

I always wait for them to slip.

We usually wait for them to drop. I prefer them when they are all the way yellow. The picture above was due to a branch getting overweighted with fruit and cracking. We cut the branch below the crack, so it wouldn't damage the tree. What you see in the picture were the limes we saved from that branch, which were in varying stages of ripeness.

I hate picking them out of the dirt, and getting scratched by the thorns when reaching underneath to grab them, so I try to get all the ripe fruits that pop right off the stem with a gentle touch.

BTW, there were a bunch of giant swallowtail larvae on my tree too, but I think wasps got most of them. The caterpillars look like bird droppings and the pupae are virtually impossible to spot since they look like a broken branch. I hope at least a few survived.

Carol, how about suede guantlets, like for welding?

It's not only my arms - it's my head and back too - Key limes have lethal thorns!

This is actually the first year I have my own crop to harvest and my tree is more like a shrub right now. Once the fruit is done, I will limb it up, but right now there are branches actually touching the ground - no getting underneath at all. I'll need to use a rake or similar to get any that fall in there.

We used to get a lot of limes year round from my mom's trees, but they died out from citrus greening. I'm afraid my little tree might have it too, but I'm hoping it's young and vigorous enough to withstand for awhile longer.

Key Lime Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 teaspoons of fresh lime zest. If you choose to be authentic, you will need around 50 Key Limes and a box of bandaids. A standard lime, roughly 2" in diameter, will yield 1 teaspoon of dark green zest. You can get more out of it, but you really just want the dark green surface. Prepare the zest first; it takes a bit longer if you do it right and you're going to need it for the next step.
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1-1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs (high altitude - increase to 3 eggs)
• 1/3 cup Key Lime juice. It's not that hard to find in Florida, but give it a shot. High end grocers should have it in stock, your local supermarket probably won't so if you have to use commercial lime juice, go ahead.
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (high altitude - decrease to 1/2 teaspoon)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

Construction

• Cream the stick of softened butter with the sugar and lime zest. When it's good and creamy, add in the eggs, and Key Lime juice.
• Add the baking powder and flour and mix well.
• Put the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Don't skimp here! Two hours is even better; it has to setup otherwise you will get runny cookies and they will stick to your hands as you roll them into balls.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (high altitude - 365 degrees.)
• Roll the dough into 1" diameter balls and give them space to spread on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
• Bake until the bottom edge starts to turn golden brown. These take around 20 minutes. Be patient, they have to just start to get brown edges or they are not done and you will leave the guts of the cookie behind on the parchment paper.
• Yields 3 dozen cookies.

Where is the lemon brownie recipe when you need it? It's better with limes--most things are. :)