Grey skies, chilly, intermittent rain : the perfect conditions for making marmalade.
Although not difficult to make, marmalade does take time. Quite a long time. I always end up with my oranges sitting around for a week or so because one way and another, I never seem to have quite the right amount of time for the task. But this morning I realised that beyond a quick circuit of the park with Sybil, the day was mine.
This batch needed only the one furious fifteen minute boil before it reached setting point. A record, I think. I usually get through several frozen saucers before I get a set.
I keep meaning to experiment with different recipes but I never get round to it, so once again I have used Delia’s recipe – which I’ll dig out later and post if anyone wants it. The jars are mostly ones I re-use each year, but my mum recently gave me a collection of lovely vintage preserving jars from France – the big ones without lids in the photograph below. They are incredibly chunky and the glass is slightly hazy when they are empty.
For some reason, and I may be alone in this, I derive enormous pleasure from finding that, by chance, I have exactly the right number of jars for the amount of marmalade I’ve made. I get the same pleasure when I manage to hit exactly £40 or £50 when I fill the car with petrol. Once or twice I have been moved to point this out to the attendant when paying. I obviously don’t get out enough.
PS thank you so much for all the lovely comments on my last post – part two to follow soon.
A day well spent I’d say!
Please may I have some- will pay handsomely.
Oh wow, I want those pots where did they come from? I like it that you keep the peel in nice chewable chunks, it’s the best way
And the garden looks amazing too, you are Domestic Goddess par excellence
I have been putting off my marmalade making … I really should get stuck in! If only I had such pretty jars!
I can almost smell it! I’ve not made any this year, I’m the only one who really eats it and I never eat toast for breakfast! I do know how hard it can be to fit it in one year I had to get a neighbour to babysit mine while I did the school run! Enjoy.
Yes, getting a decent run at it can be difficult. Retirement has many advantages and I’ve just done three batches! (Husband will get through all of it)
Not related to the lovely marmalade. Have you seen the yarn-bombed tree in St Andrews park?
I certainly have! I saw it at the weekend, but didn’t have my camera with me, but took photos on Monday when I walked the dog. Were you involved? It’s very lovely.
This is a lovely post. I’m inspired to make marmalade. It looks like something so fitting for a grey winter day, to fill your house up with the smell of oranges. Yes, please post the recipe.
Nothing to do with marmalade Charlotte but I once hit £100.00 exactly doing a supermarket shop and I was practically demanding a prize!
I think that’s far more impressive than my petrol shenanigans, and if it had been me I’d have been wanting a high five from the cashier at the very least and probably forcing other shoppers to admire my receipt!
I do exactly the same thing with fuel in the car. It’s a positive art trying to get it to the exact penny these days with fuel being so dear. Don’t you just hate it when you smugly think you’ve got it just spot on and turn around to fasten the petrol cap and when you look again, another penny has sneakily been added to your total?
Hello from Australia and a fellow writer who is ever so pleased to have found your blog. Love those jars…. marmalade making is on my list of things to do in coming weeks.
Hello from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Love to hear how snowdrops are coming up in your neck of the woods. We still have winter and the outside is bleak, very little snow, but cold.
I would love to get the recipes for your lovely orange jam, I make plum jam every fall with my grandsons.