Our second Seville Orange Marmalade Day of the season was so much fun, both for me and our participants. We began the day collecting fruit from the tree & before long, had it scrubbed, weighed, juiced, cut & bubbling away on the cooktop.
After a quick breather, we were off to the Kitchen Garden with our baskets, collecting all we needed for lunch (& munching along the way) – the very first baby broad beans, peas in their pods, sugarsnap & mangetout, fennel, divine spring lettuces & a few nasturtium flowers for good measure. Then it was back to the Dairy to cook the most tantalising fennel & lemon risotto & whip up a lovely salad of leaves. Everyone participated in the preparation and we had a good & chatty lunch, while keeping an eye on our bubbling marmalade.
A little shopping spree followed, and then, (while waiting for the marmalade to reach setting point), the afternoon activity saw us cutting fabric circles with my old pinking shears to make little hats for our jars (this time I had a metre of Nan’s ‘Bird Buti Red’ cotton from Pigott’s Store). After, we had the fun of funnelling the now rich, amber-coloured marmalade into jars.
The girls didn’t leave til 5pm – all away with the pixies by then! There will definitely be a repeat performance or two of Marmalade Days next year…..I’ll be extra kind to the tree & we’ll run as many days as we have willing participants!