Marmalade time

Over the weekend I made a double batch of seville orange marmalade.  This meant two kilos of oranges and four kilos of sugar so the kitchen is still very slightly sticky a few days later.  I don't know whether it is just me, but I find marmalade far harder to get right than jam.  All the books say it takes 10 minutes of boiling before the marmalade has reached setting point and virtually very single time I've made it, it takes more like 45 minutes at least.

I used a River Cottage recipe, which was a whole fruit method.  I started with my lovely fragrant seville oranges...

I then simmer the oranges in water for an hour or so until they are soft.

 

The pips are taken out and the peel is sliced into small slivers

The peel, sugar and water are added with any juice and slowly brought to the boil whilst stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

When it gets to a rolling boil, keep it boiling.  The books all tell me that it should be boiling for 10-15 minutes, but it ALWAYS takes longer than that.

 

After a lot of boiling, finally I have twelve jars of marmalade. 

 

 

In the darkness of midwinter it is lovely to create something bright and warm and glorious.

Earth stood hard as iron

Up country there has been snow, but here in the South we are enjoying a hard frost instead.  The ground in the garden crunched under foot and was covered in frost.  As I wandered down the garden I couldn't stop singing 'In the Bleak Midwinter' under my breath!

 

In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

“December's wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer's memory...”   

John Geddes

 

 

 What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?

John Steinbeck

 

But frost, like the crystallized dreams of autumn, began to coat the clearing with its sugar glaze.― Victoria Steele Logue

 

Frost is the greatest artist in our clime - he paints in nature and describes in rime.
Thomas Hood

 

In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow
And keep eternal spring-time on thy face.

William Shakespeare

 

In the meantime we are keeping warm in front of our fire!