Cumquat Marmalade

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred orange and scrub the floor. D.H. Lawrence

I’m not sure about scrubbing the floor, but there’s definitely something cheery about making marmalade which is ideal for a case of the coronavirus blues. Last week I got stuck in a bit of a post traumatic, we’ve come so far, but we’re not there yet; when will this finally end?; we can, but we can’t, funk. Making marmalade was the perfect treatment for my malaise, which I’m happy to say has now passed.

When you’ve been through a tough time (and let’s face it, we all have), I find you need to work on small positive experiences, which one by one add together to overpower the negativity of the recent past. …so this is what we’re doing here today: simply being grateful for that one small thing … and one more small thing … and one more small thing – just taking back ground one grateful step at a time till the battle is WON. Ann Voskamp

I’ve got a cumquat tree growing in a pot, which produces very large fruit (not cumquat sized at all), but rest assured they still taste exactly like cumquats. There’s always quite a decent crop from my small tree, which makes around sixteen jars of marmalade. It’s a lovely treat to have on hot buttered toast and the supply lasts nearly all year, (with some spare to give away). Making marmalade gives me a smug feeling, as I compare myself to Laura Ingalls Wilder preparing for a long hard winter or one of the Brambly Hedge mice with their beautifully stocked larder!

Here’s the recipe which always works wonderfully well:

Cumquat Marmalade

1. 1 part fruit (ie 1 kg)
2. 1 part sugar (ie 1kg)
3. 1 part water (ie 1 litre)

Cut the fruit in half and then shred finely. Remove any pips you find and place them into a small piece of cheesecloth or a clean chux. Once you have cut your fruit, weigh it and place it in a large pot with the same ratio of water, along with the pips tied up tightly into a bag with kitchen string at the top. Bring to the boil and boil until the skin of the cumquats is soft (20 mins – 1 hour). Remove the pip bag and squeeze out any liquid, once the bag has cooled slightly. Add the sugar and stir until it’s all dissolved. Place a small plate into the freezer. Return the marmalade to the boil and boil until it starts to thicken. To test if it’s ready, drop a tablespoon of marmalade onto the plate and return it to the freezer for a few minutes. The marmalade is ready if it crinkles and stays separated when you run your finger through the middle. I start testing after around half an hour of boiling, although start testing earlier if you’re making a small batch. Once it’s ready pour carefully into warm jars which you have sterilised in the oven at a low heat.

Bears like Paddington are very rare. And a good thing too, if you ask me, or it would cost us a small fortune in marmalade. Mrs Bird, from More About Paddington