[food] ... I do this to myself.

[kaberett]

In January 2021, I said

Lessons for next time (probably not until 2023, given that the last time I made any was 2018)...

I insisted to lemon_badgeress, in specific, that I definitely was not going to make any marmalade in 2022.

In February 2022, I remarked that

I insisted last year that I wasn't going to be making any marmalade this year

... while, of course, making marmalade, using a portion of the 5kg of blood oranges we had accidentally delivered.

It's okay, I said, to lemon_badgeress. I definitely won't make any marmalade next year--

(You see, of course, where this is going.)

Earlier this week, during his usual call with his mum, she asked A slightly wistfully if she should send us some more blood oranges. (We took her some of the blood orange marmalade I made from the previous lot and she discovered that she does, actually, under some circumstances, to her very great surprise, like the stuff.)

Today, while finalising a grocery order, A asked me -- with the page open in front of him -- if I'd like any blood oranges.

I do not like anything larger than a clementine unless it's been juiced[1], and he knows this. (During undergrad, when I was living with C and sharing groceries etc, knowing what "oranges" meant on our shared shopping list required remembering which of us had put them there, because she only likes big ones.)

Obviously, therefore, I said no. No I did not want them. No they were not relevant to my interests. Thank you! but no.

... and then, perhaps foolishly, I relented, and added "... but if what you mean is that you'd like to get some, and have me turn them into marmalade, as a Special Treat for you and your mother..."

And so, inevitably, this year I find that I will once again be making marmalade.

[1] ... or made into marmalade...

Comments

[kaberett]

I still have four of the thirteen jars of bergamot marmalade I made in 2021, plus another just opened.

What I didn't get my act together to do is actually source any medlar this year, so we're still eking out the last three and a half jars of the batch also made in 2021...

[watersword]

This is the most Alex post ever Alexed.

[simont]

Especially the part where the unexpected circumstances are so prompt.

A person of normal skills might say they weren't going to make any marmalade in a given year, and perhaps round about October or so, forget that good intention. But only kaberett is reliably able to contrive a credible marmalade emergency within the first two weeks of the year in question :-)

[kaberett]

*rueful*

[forests_of_fire]

this! XD

[lunabee34]

<3

[kaberett]

♥

[azurelunatic]

Hooray, marmalade!

[kaberett]

Harroomph :-p

[rugessnome]

and now you've reminded me that I have blood oranges and for the sake of using them up, marmalade would be a worthy idea, only I've forgotten what tips/recipes I had previously earmarked, in the two plus years since I last thought about doing it...

(I have never actually had much success with marmalade, having made unspreadable lemon candy and repellantly bitter grapefruit spread previously, over a decade ago)

[kaberett]

I'm planning to do another adventure in orange and cardamom, with more cardamom this time than last, and adding the scraped/shredded peel rather than discarding it! (Alternate recipe...)

[ewt]

I have 2kg of Seville oranges and some bergamot in my refrigerator, somehow. Solidarity.

(I have also developed some kind of sensitivity to citrus fruit, such that I ate two segments of a tangerine on Monday as a test and had some very unpleasant effects on Tuesday, and so now I am going to be making marmalade and probably not tasting it. I am unimpressed. I will try some organic oranges next week; I suspect that, while I don't eat the peels, my sensitivity is actually to some of the chemicals the non-organic ones are treated with. Le sigh.)

[kaberett]

Oh goodness that's infuriating. I am sorry!

[el_staplador]

But, on the other hand, marmalade.

[kaberett]

If I actually eat the blood orange marmalade then we will go through the stocks faster and I will get wistful questions about whether I'd like some more oranges sooner. :-p

[chiasmata]

I managed to kill a batch of marmalade last week, which leaves us with less than optimal quantities. Guess what’s on the Ocado order again this week??

[kaberett]

Oh no, my sympathies -- that sounds wretchedly frustrating. My own marmalading is scheduled for Monday -- I shall think of you while I am scraping citrus peel...

Making Is Love

[ludy]

I don’t like traditional Seville Orange marmalade but I’ve always made some for Parents and a handful of friends who are fans (I find the process quite meditative (well, assuming I have no other demands on my time) and enjoy the smell of cooking oranges). This year, without Mum, Dad still has multiple jars of last years left and I’m really not sure how many to make this year….


Also, where do you get organic blood oranges from? (Because I do like blood orange marmalade but haven’t found suitable oranges locally). Or do you have a secret for processing non-orangic ones to remove the wax-and-assorted-ick to make the suitable for marmalading?

Re: Making Is Love

[kaberett]

<3

Lots of sympathy for trying to work out how much to cook for fewer people.

Organic blood oranges: Abel & Cole, for my sins. (I'm not paying for them; A, with his tech salary, is.)

[khalinche]

This is extremely similar to the way that every year I swear I won't ever have anything to do with a quince, that me and quinces are over for good, that a quince will never darken my door again...and then they're in season and I sniff their lovely scent and suddenly it's up to my elbows in jelly bags and mush again.

[kaberett]

Oh nooooo. Solidarity.

The idea back in 2021 was that I would make enough marmalade to last me for multiple years (which I did! successfully!) so that I would get to take some years off making marmalade so I would have a chance to more thoroughly forget what a slog it is to do while enjoying the fruits of my labours! Circumstances intervened. :|

[silveradept]

I hope the marmalade is delicious. And long-lasting.

Nanny O. G. G.

[hairyears]

You have cemented - nay, concreted - your status as Person most likely to make me say: "Oh Good Grief!" with your Seville Orange Saga.


It is an even higher accolade than Person most likely to elicit "WTF!??"