It’s the annual marmalade making weekend in the house of chopsticks; a day of scrubbing, juicing, chopping and boiling, followed by a few hours of boiling sugar, sterilising jars, and hey presto! A year’s worth of yummy preserves!
This year we tried a batch with some cardamom seeds just to see how that would work out. They’re the little black blobs in the jar above.
A friend from Berry, NSW, has had a huge crop of lemons and limes this year, and I was lucky enough to share in the bounty with a small sackful. The limes had ripened beyond green and were – apart from the size – almost indistinguishable from the lemons. Their unwaxed skins help fill the kitchen with their clean, fresh smell. Citrus is one of my favourite scents. Continue reading
I took a jar of home made marmalade round to our new neighbours, and in return, they gave us some eggs from their chooks. A neighbourhood bartering system was born…
August is Marmalade Time in Australia. I had a hunt around local greengrocers during the week until I finally found a small pile of squat, firm Sevilles, and snapped them up.
Marmalade making is a bit more time consuming than jam making, so it’s just as well it only happens once a year. The extra effort is, however completely worth it. Everyone says this about their homemade stuff, but seriously, no shop-bought in the world is as good as homemade marmalade. Continue reading
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