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.