I’ve made this a few times now and each year it gets better and better. Now I love Marmalade and Jam, especially on toast or crumpets for breakfast (who doesn’t like a bit of crumpet?) Shop bought marmalade and jam is either cheap and awful, or the really good stuff is really expensive. To make your own doesn’t take much and you don’t need any specialist equipment, a large sauce pan will do. Also it’s very cheap to make, so if you fancy giving it a go, do, you’ll be hooked. Recipes are very easy to find either on line or in recipe books. Borrow one from the library, to give you an idea of what to do. But I’ve just made this years Marmalade. I made 2 batches, and this is the time to make it, because it’s the only time Seville Oranges (sometimes called Bitter Oranges) are available. You tend not to be able to find them in a supermarket, but if you have a local greengrocers ask if they can get some for you. We don’t have a local greengrocers, so I got mine from our towns outdoor weekly market, which is just the same. They have all sorts for sale and at very reasonable prices. I use Delia Smith’s Marmalade Recipe which works perfect every time. Use the same method as Delia suggests, but I used 2lbs Seville oranges, 4 pints water, 1 lemon, 4lbs granulated sugar and a half teaspoon of butter. This is what happens when you have a really old copy that was printed in the mid 90’s and then we go to metric weights and measures.

Cooking the rind before adding the sugar.

The house smells wonderful when you’re making marmalade, even the kids commented on it, which is a good sign. I made one batch one day and the other batch the following day. I’m pleased to report that I have 11 jar of marmalade to keep us going for the rest of the year. Hopefully that’ll be enough. It doesn’t matter what shapes and sizes your jars are. Ask friends and family to save their old jars for you. Just don’t use old pickled onion jars, even the dishwasher can’t get rid of the onion flavour.

My 11 jars of loveliness.

I have made some videos you could watch. Part 1 – Getting started, Part 2 – Pulp & Rind, Part 3 – Sugar … lots of sugar, Part 4 – The Crinkle Test and Part 5 – Cooling and Potting Up.

I hope you give it a go, but be quick, Seville Oranges are only available for about 3 weeks of the year, so get them as soon a s possible.