marmalade – Steph's Garden

Do you feel a hint of spring in the air? It’s predicted to be a balmy 55 degrees here on the farm this afternoon! Of course, I know spring isn’t here yet and we have a lot of cold days left to endure before true spring. By the weekend, the forecast for our high temperatures drops into the teens and stays there for a full week of frigid temperatures. Even so, we are taking advantage of these warm days preparing new planting beds and installing drip irrigation in the high tunnel. I plan to spend time next week during those colder days transplanting tiny seedlings into bigger pots and starting more seeds in preparation for the true spring scheduled to arrive in just a few short weeks.

We have a couple of new items in our online store this week. My new favorite marmalade is sweet Orange Creamsicle Marmalade, made with a touch of real vanilla. It is perfect on a toasted English muffin or for topping off a bowl of ice cream. Paired with hot fudge, it reminds me of orange-filled chocolates. Yum! I’m also pleased to introduce a new spin on our apple butter made in response to a customer request, Honey-Sweetened Apple Butter. It is just like our traditional recipe, but with locally produced honey instead of brown sugar. The honey adds a delicate floral sweetness that highlights the natural apple goodness. Sweet success!

On the savory side, I have fresh batches of Sauerkraut and fermented jalapenos aging and fermenting until they are just right. These aren’t offered in our online store, but I do take requests for custom ferments available for on-farm pickup. These refrigerated items are only available for our local friends. Another item that is available by special request is our Spicy Pickle Brine. I fulfilled a request for pickle brine a couple of weeks ago. This is a handy shortcut if you like to make your own crispy fresh pickles. Just heat the brine, pour it over your choice of prepared fresh vegetables, and let it age in your refrigerator for a few days for the flavors to meld.

Next week, during the cold snap, I’ll be making a fresh batch of Spicy Green Bean Pickles, just in time for Mardi Gras. They are the perfect accent to a Spicy New Orleans Style Bloody Mary. We’ll have these back in the store and available for purchase next week. Special thanks to my farmer friend, Scotty Thelman of Juniper Hill Farms, for helping me locate beans which are out of season here right now. He also has a line on pickling cucumbers and so I’m looking forward to restocking our pickle supplies soon.

Later this month, I’ll be jarring up fresh batches of Seyval Blanc Dijon Mustard and Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. I’m also working on some test batches of Honey Mustard. If all goes well, I hope to feature this new mustard flavor in March. Stay warm, friends, and let me know if you have any special requests for me to cook up for you in February!

Over the last few years, I’ve devoted a cold, blustery, day in January making marmalade. My favorite marmalade is Mixed Citrus Marmalade with Rice Wine. I love how the smell of citrus infuses the kitchen, making me think of the tropics and wish for a trip to somewhere warmer.

A few years ago, Scott and I visited Belize in January and spent a week on Ambergris Caye. We rented an apartment in a residential neighborhood and I walked every morning to a nearby fruit and vegetable stand to purchase freshly squeezed juice. The vegetable stand was family-owned and while I waited for the owner to prepare my juice, I visited with her grandchildren and learned about the lives of children on the island. They told me about their school and showed me pictures they were drawing of the Big Blue Hole, a popular landmark for local divers. When I asked if they had been there, they said, “Oh no, it is much too scary!” We enjoyed that juice with breakfast along with local eggs, produced by nearly everyone living on the island, before we left for our daily sight-seeing activities. We traveled around the island mostly on foot, and so we enjoyed a lot of good tropical sunshine and exercise. We enjoyed that juice in cocktails most evenings before dinner, usually local seafood that was so fresh and some of the best fish I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat.

Back to the marmalade, I use the entire fruit. In this case I used a combination of pink grapefruit, oranges, and lemons. The zest is julienned and boiled in water to make it tender, and then the citrus segments are removed from the membrane and added to the zest along with sugar to cook down into yummy jam. The seeds and membranes are packaged in a cheesecloth pouch and boiled in the jam to add pectin, and then the packet is removed and discarded. A small amount of rice wine is mixed in right before I jar up the marmalade, adding a subtle mineral note to the finished jam.

All of the pith, rinds, and other trimmings are jarred up, topped with white vinegar, and aged a few weeks to make citrus cleaner. I love to use it in my mop water to add a natural citrus aroma and grease cutting power. Nothing goes to waste!

As for the best way to serve this marmalade, it is lovely to eat on a toasted English muffin or a croissant. You can also mix a couple of tablespoons with fresh berries that have been macerated with a small amount of sugar, and it makes a fancy dessert on top of a slice of pound cake finished with homemade whipped cream. Marmalade is also good to use along with meat in savory dishes. I especially like to add it to the sauce when I prepare orange chicken or beef stir fry. Yum!

What flavors do you dream of in January? What are your most innovative uses to finish up a jar of jam? Leave a comment and let us know what you are cooking up this January.