Marmalade weekends

This year has been a tough one on the citrus fruit at Towerwater. Even the electronic beams installed alongside the citrus lane did not prevent the larger part of the crop from being stolen. The naartjies (tangerines) were almost all stolen apart from the few that I could rescue early in the season. The rescued fruit was zested for making a naartjie infused gin.

We did however rescue enough of the Valencia and Seville to cook seven batches of a variety of Marmalades. These included batches of Seville and Ginger, pure Seville, pure Valencia and an Earl Grey Valencia marmalade.  The Earl Grey marmalade was made using a loose-leaf premium black tea, loaded with extra Bergamot.

Loose leaf Earl Grey tea

Earl Grey tea with Bergamot

At least one batch proved to be particularly adventurous. Earlier, I had made a naartjie infused gin and a lemon infused gin for use in unique Towerwater cocktails during the summer. To ensure that we did not waste any of the naartjie peels, we decided to re-use the peels that had been macerating on gin for two months and make a gin infused naartjie marmalade.

Naartjie zest

Naartjie infused gin

For two weekends, the Towerwater kitchen became a Marmalade hotspot. A feature was the four pots of marmalade on the stove at different stages of the marmalade making process. From cooking the peels soft, melting the warm sugar into the juice, to the final stage of cooking the peels.

The historic kitchen was infused with the fragrance of citrus oils and the warm and comforting aroma of cooking orange peel. We prefer to cook the marmalade in small batches. We understand that our method of preparing and cooking the marmalade will not be commercially viable. The absence of the use of electrical appliances, and the use of fully organic vintage citrus varietals for these small-batch marmalades, would have to be priced at a premium to recover costs and still make a profit.

The batch of marmalade made the first weekend

The batch of marmalade made the second weekend

At this stage, the marmalades are a sheer indulgence for exclusive use at Towerwater breakfasts. The small-batch, hand-sliced, organic, preservative free artisanal marmalade made in the historic kitchen is so worth the effort. The result is naturally extraordinary. We appreciate our garden and its organic fruit each day. Breakfasts remind us of how blessed we are as we bite into the wholesome fragrant citrus peel spread on slices of toast.

The Seville oranges are a luxury we treasure as an indulgence of our one weakness, marmalade. We must agree that Seville oranges are simply the best for making marmalade.

Famed 19^th Century Cape cookery authority, Hildagonda Duckitt, in her book entitled ‘Hilda’s Diary of a Cape Housekeeper’, printed in 1902, mentions in regard to the fruit available in the month of August “…Seville or bitter oranges are now in season, which makes excellent marmalade, …” and on page 140 of ‘Hilda’s where is it? of recipes’ printed in 1891, she provides the following recipe for Seville orange marmalade.

Our trusted Towerwater marmalade recipe is one that has become second nature to us. However, we still look at other recipes and are sometimes tempted to make them. Perhaps next year we might again introduce a new recipe, or at least a new kind of marmalade into our vintage repertoire.