Sunday, January 8

Marmalade time?

This poor little orange tree is working its branches off holding so much fruit! Last winter it got stunted by some very cold nights that killed off its younger shoots, along with all of the oranges. In spite of not getting a lot of watering during the summer, it managed to replace all the lost fruit, to the point that the branches may start breaking.

Making marmalade will be tedious for sure, since none of the oranges is even the size of a tennis ball, and some are hardly bigger than an olive. Slicing, seeding, juicing, and chopping the skins will take a lot of work. Cooking to the exact temperature needed, for the exact time needed will make a decent marmalade without the addition of pectin for thickening. But miss the time or miss the temperature and you end up with soup. Orange soup. Not even orange syrup—thin soup. Should I invest the time and energy? For soup?

I’ll think about it. Either way, I need to at least pick all of them so they don’t further damage the tree. Tedious.

1 comment:

Daffy said...

...Your jam was fought over last summer at upper ranch[ one (last) jar being hidden. Hoping for a plentiful supply of marmalade.....