Today, as well as cutting lots of bean poles (we reckon we need 130!), and checking on the ewes who have no intention of lambing, I made marmalade.
In an unusual fit of *being organised* I actually managed to buy Seville oranges this year. Being *unorganised* I have held on to them for sometime before getting around to making the marmalade, until they started to look sad. Which was silly as they can be frozen whole.. but you know.. I’m going to make marmalade annnny day now.. well I finally did. Standard marmalade recipe:
slice 6 Seville oranges and find every single cut on your hands with the acidic juice. Painstakingly remove 5 billion seeds and tie up in a cloth. Pour 2 litres of water over oranges and leave overnight. Next day, curse that you started it, and cook for about an hour until soft. Measure (preserving pan with measurements on it very handy here) and add same volume of sugar, pre warmed. Cook *forever* until setting point, including an enthusiastic stir resulting in the bag of seeds bursting, and spending lots of time removing all the seeds again, this time from hot sugar solution. After reaching setting point, including the use of countless saucers in the freezer, and test samples of marmalade all over, let rest so the peel does not float to top of jars. Jar. notice peel has floated to top of jars. Decide it does not matter.
I have made marmalades of various types over the years, but this is the first time I’ve made Seville orange marmalade, so that makes it number 6 out of 52 recipes.
judging from the way himself ate the marmalade stuck to the preserving pan, it’s a winner 
Hopefully the market will have their Sevilles in on Sat and I can make Simon’s supply for the year plus a bit more to sell. Personally I can’t stand the stuff!