SeasonSort Week of Sep 4 · updated Fri

Lemons

Peak season in the Midwest · down 29% this week

$0.71 /ea

This week

↓29%

Vs last week

Calories/serv

1 g

Protein/serv

Seasonality of lemons

This fruit is harvested somewhere in the country all year, so it has no single local-harvest peak, and it is sold in stores year-round. This week it's peak season in the Midwest — buying it in season usually means better quality and, as the regional prices below show, a lower price.

Nutrition · per 58g serving

Calories

0.6 g

Protein

5.4 g

Carbs

0.2 g

Fat

1.6 g

Fiber

Per a typical 58g serving, scaled from the per-100g figures in USDA FoodData Central (Lemons, raw, without peel).

Cheapest lemons this week, by region

Buying lemons in the Northeast saves about 59% versus the Southwest this week.

Buying lemons

How to pick a good one: Look for thin, smooth, brightly coloured skin and real heft — thick-skinned, knobbly lemons have less juice for the same price. A little give under pressure means a juicier fruit than a rock-hard one.
What a good price looks like: Loose lemons are 50 cents to a dollar each; bagged lemons often work out at half that per fruit and are the better buy if you cook with them regularly. Cheapest in winter and spring. Because a recipe uses one, lemons rarely repay price optimisation — but the gap between loose and bagged is large enough to be worth noticing.
What you actually get: A medium lemon gives about 3 tablespoons of juice and 1 tablespoon of zest. Four lemons make roughly three-quarters of a cup of juice. A pound is four to five lemons. Bottled juice keeps but tastes flat and cannot substitute where the lemon is the main flavour.

Storing and cooking lemons

How to store it: Refrigerate in a sealed bag, where they keep three to four weeks instead of the week they last on the counter. Cut halves dry out fast; wrap them.
In the kitchen: Zest before you juice, always — zesting a spent half is miserable and most of the aromatic oil is in the peel rather than the juice. Roll and warm as with oranges for more juice. Zest freezes well in a small pot, and leftover juice freezes in an ice cube tray at roughly two tablespoons a cube, which is the usual recipe unit.
Getting the most out of it: Roll a lemon firmly on the counter before juicing and it yields noticeably more. Zest whole lemons before use and freeze the zest — it keeps most of its aroma and turns an ordinary dish sharp. Lemon juice also freezes well in ice cube trays.

Cook with Lemons · cheapest dishes first

See all 3200 recipes with lemons →Filter by diet, time, budget, and macros.

Price from the USDA National Retail Report. Nutrition per typical serving, computed from USDA FoodData Central.

Lemons — FAQ

When can you buy lemons in season?

This fruit is harvested somewhere in the country all year, so it has no single local-harvest peak, and it is sold in stores year-round. This week the Midwest has lemons marked peak season.

What's the price of lemons right now?

As of the week of September 4, 2026, the price of lemons in the Midwest is $0.71/ea, down 29% from last week. It's cheapest in the Northeast at $0.53/ea.

How many calories and how much protein are in lemons?

A typical 58g serving of lemons has about 17 calories, 0.6g protein, 5.4g carbohydrates, 0.2g fat, and 1.6g fiber, per USDA FoodData Central.

What can I make with lemons?

SeasonSort indexes 3200 recipes that use lemons, each with its cost per serving computed from this week's prices — starting from about $0.01 a serving. The cheapest are listed on this page, with a link to the full filtered list.