Lady Marmalade

So my brother-in-law and his wife recently moved into a new house. At this new house, they have a huge, old Satsuma tree. Now. If you have had Satsuma oranges (a.k.a. tangerines), then you know how awesome this is. We have Satsumas coming out of our eyeballs.

After my foray into canning last spring, when a friend showed me how to can grapefruit marmalade, I purchased a canning kit. It has been sitting on top of the refrigerator for six months, unused.

But with all of the lovely Satsumas, I was inspired to take action. So I got two giant bags of the oranges from my brother-in-law's wife (whom I call my sister-in-law even though she's probably not technically an "in-law" anything, but that's okay because she is my friend), and set to canning. I got busy on Saturday morning, and found a recipe online. After about 2-2 1/2 easy-peasy hours, I had four, beautiful half pints of marmalade. (I want to show you pictures, but I don't have time right now to get the camera and find the USB cord. Pictures will follow).

To make that batch used up only nine oranges. So, still with beaucoup d'oranges, I decided to make two more batches on Sunday*. Well, I had some snafus, and it took longer, and I got a bit frazzled, and I made some mistakes, and there is now a major puddle of candied marmalade on the stove that I need to clean up. But. I did end up with eight more half pints, and, let me tell you, it is delish. It's is especially good on sourdough toast.

If you've never canned, find a friend who has, get some of the last Satsumas of the season, and try the marmalade. It's easy. I'm hoping to make even more next weekend. With all of these oranges I've got, it's too good a chance to pass up. Maybe I should have a give away! Marmalade for a lucky blog reader! We'll see. Only if I end up with lots of jars. Otherwise, I'm hoarding my share.

Oh, and TKW? I bet you could do very cool things with this marmalade--more than just putting it on toast.

*It was recommended not to double the recipe, so prepared the fruit in two separate pots.