We try to serve as much homemade produce as possible at our bed and breakfast here on the Isles of Scilly and the quieter days of winter are the perfect time to lay in stocks of homemade preserves for the coming season’s guests. This is especially true for Seville orange marmalade, as the fruit is only available for a short time at the beginning of the year.
On Thursday, I got the call from my mother in law that the Seville oranges were in stock, and so the immortal words of Paddington Bear “It’s marmalade day…” today, a dank and blowy Sunday morning, which seems just the right sort of day to turn my pile of beautiful bright orange globes into jars of traditional Seville orange marmalade.
For me, marmalade making is rewarding on many levels. Of course, the end result – delicious homemade marmalade for our B & B guests – is the ultimate reward, but I find the process of transforming the fruit into preserves a treat in itself. The squeezing of the fruit, the scooping of the pith, the slicing of the peel are all therapeutic. I love that the whole fruit is used as this appeals to the part of me that hates waste. Not to mention the colour of the juice and the skin is bright and beautiful.
The scent of the bitter orange oil that comes from the skins as they are sliced is one of the very best parts of marmalade making. In aromatherapy, bitter orange is described as being like sweet orange with grapefruit undertones and is said to be uplifting and to inspire positivity. In the dark days of late January, when the autumn bounty is long behind us, the festive period is dimming in our memories, a bright spark of positivity is most welcome, even when you live somewhere as beautiful as the Isles of Scilly!
Posted on 5th March but written (and marmalade made!) by Kelly on 13th January 2019