Kumquat Liqueur and Van Der Hum Marmalade

The citrus season is in full swing at Towerwater. Fresh orange juice and marmalade-making seem to be part and parcel of the weekends.  The four kumquat trees are a treat and I find myself snacking on them constantly while I work in the garden. I enjoy the sweet skin and then the sour surprise as I bite into the fruit.

Kumquats in pots

The name kumquat is derived from the Cantonese (Jyutping: gam¹gwat¹), literally “golden tangerine”.  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumquat

I use them with lemons to brighten up cocktails and thinly sliced kumquats add a surprising zest to a salad. They are quite delicious candied but with limited time I need to find a less time consuming way of preserving them. Their pips stop me from making marmalade with them. Because they are so small you have to cook the whole fruit and I do not like pips in my jams or preserves. The only jam that I do not mind having a few pips is ‘korrelkonfyt’.

Kumquat Liqueur and Kumquats in Rose Geranium Vodka

The other alternative was to make kumquat liqueur. I made two bottles of liqueur and decided to preserve the liquor infused kumquats in a vodka and rose geranium syrup to use in a citrus cake later.

Ginger Marmalade

With the next two batches of marmalade I decided to make more ginger marmalade (my one weakness) and some Van Der Hum marmalade adding a true South African  flavour with a traditional indigenous liqueur from the Cape winelands.

Van Der Hum Marmalade

The kitchen and dining room resemble a marmalade industry with five different marmalades available. The Seville oranges on the tree should perhaps become plain organic Seville marmalade. That is a luxury in its own.