Also not a one-for-one substitute, but I had a cake decorated with dried sumac berries that gave a nice sour bite in contrast to the sweetness.

If the ingredient needs to be mixed into the batter, perhaps a flavoured oil might be another route.

i agree with the suggestion to grow a lemon tree. you can start it from seed by yourself, but there are also places to buy a one-year-old to three-year-old tree. plant it in a pot that way you can keep it outside during your summer months and bring it in during the winter. that's what i do here in northeastern ohio and it works out pretty good.

if that's not a route you're interested in, i say you could maybe just buy a lemon oil or lemon extract from your favorite local grocery store. the product may not be perfectly local, but at least you're giving your business to a store within your local economy

Heck, I was one of the original "locavores" back when it was just an SF East Bay mailing list, and I wouldn't do this. I try to buy only within my watershed as much as possible, but I also buy spices from India, coffee from Sumatra, tea from Darjeeling, etc. I think you are incredible to want to do this, but I have a different POV. To me the point is a) support your local farmers whenever possible, including eating seasonally b) try to avoid buying things that are trucked in. But if there is no local alternative, I happily buy non-local things.

I would just buy lemons and maybe spend your time trying to source other great farmers to support locally for the other things you buy.

lemon balm, lemon grass...

What about lemongrass? It's not local but it roots so quickly from a single fresh stalk -- stick it in water or damp sand -- the care is a cinch, and they grow for ages.

I agree that growing a lemon tree is a great solution but depending on your indoor plant skills maintaining one and getting it to fruit might be hit or miss (my Meyer Lemon has yet to yield any useable fruit after 3 years...that's me though). Plus lemongrass is way cheaper for a growing experiment.

I would cry without lemons.

Compromise, and try a bottle of Limoncello.

I'm in more or less the same position (live in Seattle- eat locally from farmers markets as much as possible) and lemons are something that I haven't given up. I just make sure that the lemons I buy are organic and grown in the US. It's important to me to pay attention to what I eat and how I eat it- but I'm not looking to unnecessarily torture myself!

I've tried lots of herbs to mimic a lemon flavour, and I've found that lemon verbena is the closest. It's really easy to grow, too.

If you're going to grow your own lemon tree though, don't try to do it from seed as someone above suggested. Go to a good fruit tree nursery and find a grafted variety, a dwarf one if it's going to be in a pot. This means that you can get whatever cultivar you want, but grafted onto rootstock that (a) is dwarfing and (b) suitable for your climate, because it's the rootstock, not the tree itself, that determines how it copes with certain weather and water amounts. Good luck!

I don't know if this helps you, but I know from the 100 Mile Diet book that citrus has been growing in some parts of B.C. Perhaps you can grow lemons in Seattle after all?

I don't have anything else to add -- all of these are good suggestions.

right behind sarahberneche here, there are limes being grown on some of the gulf islands. i saw them being sold in courtney/comox on vancouver island. also, i hear lemons can be grown with some care in victoria, using twinkling lights that turn on when the weather gets a little chilly, then the tree is draped with plastic and the heat generated by the lights is enough to get the tree through the cold spell. you're not too far from us, check it out!

phoxx is right, just make whatever you are having without the lemons and have a few shots of limoncello while cooking. You'll never miss the lemons.

Lemon trees grow like weeds (seriously) in the San Francisco Bay Area, if it doesn't snow I'd give one a try in Seattle. Heck, even if it does. Get a dwarf variety, definitely, but do keep in mind that "dwarf" here means something like 8-10 feet high. Put it outside during summer and bring it in before the first frost; if you have a south facing window, it should get sufficient light.

The best part of "grow your own" is picking a cultivar. I tried to grow one that was striped on the outside and pink on the inside. Sadly, because I have zero outdoor space, it didn't do well. Now I just ask my neighbors if I can help relieve them of their Meyer lemons.

I know this is more of a savory sub, but there's lemon/lime basil. You can grow it in your backyard/near a window. Smells great too!

I agree with DCarl1...this seems highly unnecessary. Most of the food I eat is locally grown, but I'm not giving up bananas!

Is the limoncello local?

I think this is really limiting your cooking. What do you do about pepper? Vanilla? Coffee? And what will happen to those countries who export the same? How can Fair Trade exist if we willing shut off dealing with other parts of the planet?

I'd think the energy expended in growing a citrus tree in an inhospitable climate is greater than buying a lemon grown in California.

Twinkle lights! That's *brilliant*! Thanks, Polish Chick - I'm going to give that a try!!!

When I first read the question, I thought you meant native as in 'not introduced to the area' (in the last 500 years). I've often wondered if that is still possible in Australia but sadly I think most of the knowledge about native Australia edible plants has been lost.

I'd try to grow lemons myself or allow yourself to indulge occasionally. Perhaps there are some regions where you could source your lemons from that are more acceptable to you than others.

If you do get local lemons in abundance at some time of the year, the juice freezes beautifully as does the zest. I preserve them in salt (in the Moroccan fashion à la Paula Wolfert from her Couscous cookbook) and enjoy them all the time!

Palmetto, I agree. I meant to say something along those lines too. It can be all very nice to call yourself a locavore and say you're just going to buy from local, sustainable, organic farmers, and to talk about how nice it is to live simply 'like the old days'. But the world – its economies and environments – is so much more complex than that. Fair Trade is a really great example of this, because it's such an important aspect to consuming responsibly, even if it still means the product is shipped a long distance. I'm sure there are lots of ways you can consume actual lemons in a responsible way.

As a side note, as much as I love Michael Pollan I really bristle at his 'rule' that we should avoid things that our great-grandmother wouldn't recognise as food. I know that what he really means is "that anyone from that generation wouldn't recognise," but I hate that he dresses it up in allusions of homey old-time grammaws. My great-grandma wouldn't have recognised miso soup, or sushi, or dal, or so many other things. But they're still really great and healthy foods.

Sorry, I meant to conclude that locavore zealousness can take on a similar tone to Pollan's grammaw allusion – that I've seen people lose sight of the fact that there are more complex ways of being a responsible consumer than just imposing a 100-mile rule on your food.

I live in Victoria, BC and one of our island wineries makes a really nice verjus. I usually just buy their wonderful balsamic vinegar, but I took a cooking class from Mara Jernigan (local chef and president of Slow Food Canada) and she used routinely used Venturi Shulze verjus in place of lemon juice because there aren't really any local lemons. Would a Vancouver Island product be local enough for you? It's totally worth the short trip over from Seattle, but if you're not in the mood for that, I'm pretty sure they ship.

http://www.venturischulze.com/verjus/index.php?page_id=verjus

Fir, pine, and spruce needles are edible, and Douglas fir needles (I'm not sure if they grow in Seattle) taste quite lemony to me -- they're also a great source of vitamin C. I haven't tried spruce but spruce tea is a common use. Not a great sub in quantity but might be an interesting variation for a bright zing of flavor. Also make sure you can ID them well as while those conifers are edible, yew is not. And don't sample Christmas trees unless you know they haven't been sprayed with flame retardant or something yucky.

I also use vinegar or sometimes white wine for some of the same uses as lemon juice; I like the idea of using verjus a lot since it has a lovely bright sour flavor. I know there's a strain of Washington oranges, too, so you might be able to sub with those for some recipes.

I live in Northern California and wouldn't try to eat entirely locally. I'm very happy to eat mostly from local farmers, including my meats, eggs, and milk, but I also really love black pepper and tea from China and India. I tried to eat aggressively local this winter but I did eat a pear or two from Washington when I got tired of a wall of citrus, as well as a few bananas, and my dates, cherimoyas, and mangos, while California grown... well they're well outside the 100 mile radius. Importing food is a VERY old practice, with spices traveling thousands of miles along the Silk Road being very important in medieval Europe.

I try to practice eating very mindfully, and I try to make my staples either local or fair trade if they're imported. I also prefer imported foods that are not so perishable that they can't be shipped efficiently and slowly.

Regarding Michael Pollan's rule, like most simplifications including the 100 mile rule, it's flawed if you adhere to it rigidly and mindlessly, but the spirit of it is pretty clear: eat something that *someone's* grandparents would have recognized as food. (Maybe not my grandmother; she lived on cola and molasses cookies from Safeway!)

I actually really like the 100 mile rule because I find myself eating more mindfully. When I'm aware that the banana is a deviation from the rule, I appreciate it a lot more because it's a special treat, not something I just eat for fuel. Since I try not to eat produce that grows locally in some season that's imported out of season, it means I'm *delighted* that local asparagus and strawberries are available now -- other than those two pears I was actually really good this winter about importing foods that grow locally here at some point. I do eat some frozen and canned vegetables and beans, but I'm considering putting up my own unless I can find a locally grown brand, and I like that frozen/canned veggies are usually put up when they're at their best.

This year? I plan to can or freeze berries and pears, to help get more variation next winter.

Okay, I'll acknowledge I agree with those who think this is taking localvore to a silly extreme, however, I think the lectures aren't really likely to get through (and are mostly just rude when presented in the absence of answers to the actual question).

Here're some subs for lemon juice:

Malt or white vinegar: use 1/2 cup vinegar for every cup of lemon juice
Water w/ crushed vitamin c tablets

I don't know if pomegranates grow up there, but if they do you could make some pom. molasses. Sometimes when I'm too lazy to open a lemon I use that as a substitute.

For zest, I'd use either lemon grass , lemon balm or lemon verbena. Or sumac. Sumac is lovely.

Oh, and one other thing you can consider is True Lemon. It's not a "local" product, but it works as a good replacement for lemon. They also have a lime and orange one.