The rhythm of handmade marmalade

The weekend was dedicated to the making of marmalade at Towerwater. With the citrus fruit in season, it was time to make our traditional organic handmade marmalade. The added luxury that we enjoy, is that we water the garden with untreated irrigation water which flows straight from the river.

With no known chemical additives in the soil or on the plants, we rest assured that we are making the healthiest possible natural preservative-free marmalade.

There is a rhythm to the garden. Activities are pre-determined by the seasons and what each provides in terms of vegetables, fruit and herbs.

The kitchen, our hands and cutting boards, were steeped with the fresh fragrance of citrus oil. Apparently, essential orange oil is a potent anti-depressant. It has wonderful properties for energizing and lifting the mood. Perhaps it is why we were happy to make the marmalade, the added energy stimulating our creativity. 

We decided to make naartjie marmalade, our first ever. We also made a Towerwater five-fruit marmalade. We used the five different citrus fruit varieties from the trees growing alongside the vegetable garden. We used Seville and Valencia oranges, limes, lemons and naartjies. We were excited to add this unique marmalade to our collection. It captures five of the seven citrus varieties available in the garden.

We made a batch of sweet orange marmalade using Valencia oranges. I decided to make Earl Grey tea marmalade, in order to experiment with the effects of the Bergamot flavour it contains. It adds a marvellous flavour, just perfect for breakfast.

5 fruit, naartjie, Earl Grey and sweet orange marmalade

Making the four batches of marmalade became a rhythmic exercise of washing, cutting, juicing, slicing, cooking and bottling the citrus fruit. There was no need for conversation. With music playing in the background, we were working as on an assembly line. Each focused on the task at hand.

Thinly sliced peel slivers hang suspended in different hues of amber jelly. They are ready for the enjoyment they can provide at forthcoming breakfasts.

The appeal of citrus peel

With the ripening of the citrus fruit, the Towerwater kitchen has become a hive of activity. The first two batches of organic Seville oranges and Eureka lemons were used to make marmalade.

The kitchen was filled with the fragrance of fresh orange oil emanating from the slicing of peels. While Keith cut them into precise slivers, I prepared the two pots of juice, water and a muslin-wrapped parcel containing the chopped lemon, pips, flesh and extra pith.

Jars were sterilised and sugar heated. All in preparation for the making and bottling of the organic Towerwater marmalade, 2018 vintage. Making marmalade is labour intensive. One has to be present and attentive for each step. The whole day was taken up with the making of the marmalade. Keith even managed to fit in a tour of the house and garden for a small group of visitors. I think he enjoyed the distraction from cutting citrus peel.

I enjoy marmalade making. One gets to use the whole fruit. Only a little bit of the pith and pips end up in the compost. Besides, marmalade is good for you, even healthy. It contains low amounts of sodium, fat and calories. I am pleased that we can use our own organic fruit to make our favourite breakfast accompaniment.

Although we lost half our naartjie crop to theft, we still had enough to make dried naartjie peel. I love this traditional flavouring for food. This time, I made a larger batch. I remembered that first precious naartjie from the tree, and in how many different dishes I could use its dried peel.

The jar of dried peel looks attractive. Almost like a snack one should enjoy with drinks. I will definitely add some dried peel to the jar of sugar. It adds that something extra, in the form of a special flavour, to teas and baked goods.

Although we finished with the bottling of the marmalade later, into the evening, I decided to make a celebratory cocktail with organic naartjies, orange bitters, gin and triple sec. A citrus trio that made sweet music together. This was the toast to a row of jars filled with beautiful marmalade.

Citrus peel can be used in so many different ways. It was gratifying to stock the cellar with jars filled with the elements of this versatile and appealing winter fruit.

The pleasure of finished work

We were greeted by a sea of orange and yellow nasturtiums in the orchard. Mother Nature seems to have decided that all the neat rows and beds in the garden are too restrictive. Nature thrives on a little madness. Bold strokes of bright nasturtiums grow larger on the orchard floor.

With an abundance of citrus in the garden, we cannot seem to drink enough fresh juice and use enough lemon zest in most dishes. Towerwater has got more than a hint of citrus in the air. We decided to focus on making marmalade over the weekend.

Between Keith and myself we got the production line going with me cutting, squeezing, removing the white pith of the skins, pouring water and juice into pots and tying the flesh and pips into muslin bags for hanging in the pots.

Keith took on the most laborious task of cutting the peels into strips after quality controlling the skins and removing more of the white pith. Being sliced by a perfectionist, the peels looked amazing and promised to make beautiful-looking marmalade.

We go to a lot of trouble to keep our citrus organic. That affords us the luxury of using the complete fruit. The selected marmalades for the day were ‘sweet orange’, ‘whisky’ and ‘three-fruit’.

With baskets of Seville and Valencia oranges and Eureka and Cape Rough Skin lemons filling the kitchen, it was like bringing the orchard into the house. For a moment, I could imagine what an orangery must smell like before wheeling out the citrus for summer.

With three pots of peels cooking on the stove, it was time to sterilise jars and heat up the sugar for each batch of marmalade. Until I get into the habit of labelling the preserves, I decided to colour code the lids for each of the marmalades. Black lids for the whisky, white lids for the sweet orange and golden lids for the three fruit marmalade.

The kitchen was fragrant from the fresh spray of citrus oil and the warm citrusy steam rising from the cooking peels and up the hearth chimney. I wondered how many times this ritual must have played out in the almost 200 year-old kitchen.

What it was like all those years ago, one can only imagine. I believe the way the marmalade was made was a bit different if I look at the recipe for Seville orange marmalade in the book, “Hilda's "Where is it?" of recipes” by Hildagonda J. Duckitt, published in 1891.

In “Hilda's Diary of a Cape Housekeeper” by Hildagonda J. Duckitt published in 1902 she writes “July (page 161) Oranges and Lemons. – Both orange and lemon trees were planted by the early colonists wherever they made a garden, every old farm had its large garden, well fenced round and planted with peach trees, orange trees, saffron pears, and fig trees. Even in the Transvaal every farmhouse has its orange trees. The fruit is not affected by frost, blossoming in September. The fruit matures and grows all through the summer months, and is only perfectly ripe in August and September, taking almost a year to mature.” On page 162 she gives us an insight into the cost of oranges.       “Oranges are sold in June and July, but are very sour, not being quite ripe and sweet till August and September. The price for fine oranges in Cape Town range from one to two shillings the dozen. I trust soon they will be less expensive, as they are being planted largely now wherever they will thrive. Some of the old orange groves are splendid.”

On page 175 she writes,” August, Fruits. Seville or bitter oranges are now in season, which make an excellent marmalade, for which a recipe was given in Hilda’s Where is it, p. 140 and others in this book.”

Sweet orange marmalade

I found the recipe she refers to and thought I would share it. It is interesting to see that the oranges were cooked whole before it was sliced. Perhaps next year I might try the recipe from Hilda’s book.

From Hilda's "Where is it?" of recipes by Hildagonda J. Duckitt published in 1891

“MARMALADE (SCOTCH).

(Mrs. Etheridge's Recipe.)

Ingredients.

6 lb. of Seville or Bitter Orange. 13 lb. of Sugar.

Scrape or grate the peel slightly; put the oranges into a stewpan; cover them with cold water. Boil gently for two hours, keeping them well under water with a plate on the top. When quite soft take them out and drain, open them, and take out the seeds. Cut the peel and pulp all together in thin strips (some people mince everything through a mincing-machine). For every pound of fruit, weighed after being boiled, take two of sugar, and one pint of the water the oranges were boiled in. Boil all together for half an hour, and pour the marmalade boiling hot into jars.”

Whisky marmalade

We pride ourselves on our handmade organic marmalade with the beautiful golden strips of delicate peel suspended in the amber syrup.

Three fruit marmalade

Cooking marmalade in relay meant we were busy, cutting, cooking and bottling the whole Saturday and most of Sunday. Standing back looking at all our hard work on the shelf in the cellar, a sense of accomplishment washed over us. It is very rewarding to make something beautiful and enjoyable. We know that we will still be enjoying our hard work for a long time. I decided not to try to count the innumerable toast slices that we can enhance with the marmalade before us.

With this year’s citrus crop we have managed, besides fresh juice, to make Van der Hum liqueur; Dried Naartjie Peel; Kumquat Jelly; Ginger and Seville, Seville, Sweet Orange, Three Fruit and Whisky- marmalades. Now finally for the cordials, and then we can conclude the citrus season at Towerwater.

For now, we can enjoy the pleasure of finished work - Acti labores iucundi

Whisky Marmalade for a Wet Sunday

The garden is showing serious signs of spring with the fruit trees coming into blossom and the rose bushes covered with shiny green to red leaves. The colour of the rose blooms are foretold by the leaves with the red and darker roses having more reddish leaves and with the lighter coloured roses having vibrant green leaves.

Wet Plum Blossoms in the rain

Saturday was spent cleaning, fixing and taking away garden refuse. Having lost all our naartjies to some freelance harvesters we were left with some Valencia and Seville oranges for marmalade making. I harvested oranges and cleaned jars on Saturday to prepare for making marmalade on Sunday.

Prepared  Sweet Orange and Lemon Peel

On Sunday we awoke to a wet wintery scene and with the day still shrouded in darkness I prepared the kitchen for marmalade making. Citrus squeezers, Muslin cloths in bowls for the pulp, sugar, sterilizing jars and chopping boards for hand-slicing peels, were all set out.

Prepared Seville Orange Peel

Normally I would only make one batch of marmalade per day. With Keith helping we decided to make three batches, each batch one hour apart. While the first batch of peels was cooking we started slicing the second batch of peels and when the second batch of peels was cooking we prepared the third batch of peels.

Cooking Marmalade

Cooked Marmalade

We worked like a well-oiled machine and we had two batches of peels cooking to the correct softness and the first batch of marmalade in the final cooking stage. As soon as the first batch was bottled we started the final cooking of the second batch and when the second batch was bottled we started the final cooking the third batch.

A variety of Marmalade

After five hours of making marmalade we had batches of Seville and ginger marmalade, sweet orange marmalade while the second batch of Seville marmalade we decided to turn into whisky marmalade.

Sweet Orange Marmalade

The aroma of marmalade cooking mingled with the homely wood fire smells drifting over from a neighbour’s fireplace. It smelled warm and comforting on a cold wet day and it just seemed appropriate to make whisky marmalade befitting of the misty landscape resembling a rural Scottish Highland scene. It was inevitable that our new hobby would spill over into our yearly production of marmalade making. 

Seville Orange and Ginger Marmalade

I have contemplated chopping the peels with a machine but there is something about a marmalade with hand-sliced peels that just seems right.

Whisky Marmalade

With the season of marmalade making on the property in full swing I will be making marmalade for the next couple of weekends. With so much organic orange peel available, it would seem a waste not to preserve them.

Organic Orange Marmalade

An extra pair of hands made a big difference in the production of the first jars of marmalade of the season, but from next weekend I will be the sole ‘marmalader’. I will have to think of creative flavours for the next batches of marmalade to keep it interesting.

Keith is quite impressed that he can now have whisky for breakfast albeit on his toast.

The Tao of Handmade Marmalade

The first Spring weekend at Towerwater was very busy with the freshening of the broken apricot pip pathways. Raking the broken pips should be very Zen and I did contemplate raking designs and patterns and allow the experience to aid my meditation about the true meaning of life but if you have a mountain of pips the reality of moving that mountain does not allow for meditation. Although the freshly pipped pathways do bring a visual sense of order and pleasure to the garden and that is another form of meditation for me.

September brings the pleasure of citrus smells into the garden and the trees are a profusion of stages from blossom, young fruit and ripe fruit. On Sunday morning I could harvest, Seville, Valencia and Lemons. To harvest one's own fruit is to be in harmony with nature, a teaching of Taoism. The yellow and orange are alive with the brightness of sunny days and the intoxicating smell of orange blossoms hangs warm in the cool morning air.

First thing on Sunday morning I got everything ready for making marmalade before I ventured into the garden to harvest the ingredients. Got my trusted preserve recipe book "Lekker vir Later" and refreshed my brain with the basics of marmalade making. I could fill my white enamel bowl with the black edge to the brim with the most delicious oranges and lemons.

This year I was prepared and I bought an electric slicer that can cut anything from 0 -15mm. I could visualise the precision cut orange peels suspended in the golden syrup in my preserve jars. With the water and juice in the pot, the insides of the oranges tied in a muslin cloth and the sugar heating in the oven I was quickly going to slice up my citrus peel. The blade was set on very thin to produce "landbouskou" quality marmalade but the peels dit not work and the blade just zested the peel. I was not sure how I was going to give the "dysfunctional" slicer back to the store after shattering that dream.
In the end I had to put the hands back into my handmade marmalade the industrial age will have to wait. In the background Simon and Garfunkel was singing, “Slow down, you move too fast,
You got to make the morning last"
Marmalade is slow food and I love the smell of fresh orange oil bursting on my hands as I cut the orange peel as thin as possible. For me food is about the visual "ek moet sien hoe lekker dit is voor ek dit nog geproe het." That I had to say in Afrikaans because I could not translate it. As a lover of Marmalade it is the best to have the kitchen filled with the smell of cooking citrus peel. I can taste the Marmalade that it is going to produce. When I eat my Marmalade on toast I will also have this memory of cooking citrus peel.

In the end my peels were not the perfect precision sliced ones I had hope for but each of them are unique and when I put them on the breakfast table it is not just a pot of Marmalade I am offering you but also the abundance of my garden captured in a small glass jar.




"Soetlemoen" Marmalade and Seville Marmalade with Ginger

My kitchen with the first batch of Marmalade the second was still cooking

Lekker vir Later





“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 oranges and scrub the floor.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)