Bergamot boxes more or less, part one

I had the lemons waiting,  ready for the bergamot boxes, or lemon boxes. The peels need to be soaked in boiling water for an hour. Since I was having boiled egg and toast for dinner, I thought ah, do it then. Ready pan of boiling water after the egg comes out.

Since I was going to use two lemons I experimented, cutting one pole to pole as Sally recommended, and one across the equator, to see which worked better.

You have to scoop out the insides, now in the freezer for the next time I need lemons 

Then soak, here in the water from the egg 

Then find containers to use as molds, and you also find that even the smallest ones in the house are a bit too big. 

It takes ages to scrape out the pith, then turn the rind inside out. One just exploded into three pieces, hence only three seen here

It then took more ages and patience to get them to lie on the molds and this is probably the tenth iteration, since the rubber bands I started with kept leaping off and flying across the room. Then I resorted to twine hoping that might stay put.

This is the state of the boxes Sunday evening, and they will need to be revisited and pressed down and squeezed frequently during the drying process, which might be a day or more. 

If they dry, there's more to do. I doubt if any two will fit together like a box and lid, so I may have made bergamot bowls. 

Bergamots are a variety of orange, but this idea can work with any citrus fruit, the idea being the lovely scent. 

Anyway there may or may not be a part two, depending on the vagaries of the lemons, the solstice and the configuration of the planets.

Update: another rind broke apart spontaneously. That's both of the pole to pole cut ones. So, despite Sally, I'll stick with equator cutting. Pole to pole works for the globular orange shape but lemons, no, maybe not 

Meanwhile happy day, everyone and remember I do these things so you don't have to.