As anyone with a prolific lemon tree will attest - It's wonderful to have so many lemons, but then after a point, what do you do with all of them? 

With many lemon trees yielding a bountiful harvest this spring, some young Manhattan Beach scouts decided to help their neighbors pick the fruit - and share the wealth.

A group of girls from Troop 713 Den 6, a Scouts BSA troop, got out their lemon-pickers, a ladder, and a wagon, and set out to pick lemons from five different neighbors' trees. (Scouts BSA is the parent organization of the Boy Scouts; it became Scouts BSA when it opened up to girls' troops in 2019.)

"We picked from 5 different houses to avoid denuding any one tree," noted troop leader Eugene Grayver.

All told, scouts Mila, Coral, Sara, and Maddyn picked 40 pounds of lemons.

They donated the lemons to Project Needs, a food and clothing outreach ministry at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Redondo Beach.

"The girls are exited to demonstrate two attributes of the scout law: a scout is kind and helpful," said Grayver.  

Grayver's Cub Scout troop did a similar lemon picking project two years ago, with the lemons also going to the Project Needs pantry.