Marmalade Making on January 13, 2017

Sorry to do this to you followers of a painting blog but I needed to have a public posting of the following...

There is a community on facebook called "FoodInJars.com".  I needed a public site where the results of the community challenge could/would be published - so bear with me.

I finished up the first marmalade I’ve made in about 30 years. Felt good and brought many memories with it.  The house we purchased 43 years ago, when I was 8 months pregnant with our son came with a “history” of giving jars of tangerine marmalade, made from the already 40-50 year old tree in the backyard, to all of the neighbors.  Having never made jam before, the wonderful 82-year old widow, who was selling the house because she was getting married, gave me a canning lesson so that I “wouldn’t let the neighbors down’.  I still have that marmalade recipe in her handwriting.  It took 3 days to make but boy was it yummy!  Because the tree had not even one tangerine this year……

I made a Satsuma orange, Meyer lemon, vanilla bean concoction because that’s what I had on hand.  It’s quite tart with a wonderful complicated taste. Because I had no cheesecloth, I put all the pulp and the seeds in my potato masher and buried that in the kettle with the fruit (the mother of invention). I ran out of time on day one and put the whole kettle in the fridge for 3 days – until this morning when I brought everything to a boil and finished up the jamming process.

I now use the non-water-bath method http://www.jeffersonsdaughters.com/2011/10/14/jam-and-jelly-without-a-water-bath/ when I make jam and since I don’t can anything else (beans, tomatoes, meat), I’ve never worried about a batch going bad.  (Jars, lids are red hot having been in hot water and/or the oven.)


I’ve sent out a request via our neighborhood’s email system that I would love some homegrown tangerines in exchange for a jar or two of jam.  Have had several responses.  Am looking forward to making Mrs. Heller’s tangerine marmalade once again.