Satsuma Marmalade

Satsumas are one of my favorite fruits. If you haven't experienced this fabulous citrus fruit, I can't possibly explain the essence of all you are missing out on. They are easy to peel, with the perfect balance of tart and sweet. They are in abundance around here this time of year, and usually we simply eat them as they are until they are all gone.

Last year we juiced some and

froze the juice. This year my daughter decided to make marmalade out of them. I had been planning on making kumquat marmalade, but had honestly never thought of using satsumas for it. She called to say how great it turned out, and since a local farmer had just invited my husband and son to come and pick the rest of his crop before they froze I just happened to have plenty on hand, so I decided to try my hand at it.

My daughter came over and we decided to work together. It was a lot of fun. The whole process took quite a while. We worked on it practically half of the day, and we only got 8 half-pints, that's only 4 half-pints a piece. We really didn't mind that much. It was a new experience and we enjoyed doing it together.

I've never eaten a lot of marmalade, I mainly use it to baste grilled chicken, but after smelling it I had to have a sample on some toast. I don't know if it was all of the time put into it that made me biased or not, but I think it turned out really tasty!

While working with my daughter, we used her electric juicer. Angel Eyes, came in and asked why we didn't use the juicer on my Hoosier cabinet. It was a vintage model I picked up at a flea market, thinking it would go nicely on the antique cabinet. I had never planned to use it. She asked if she could try it out. I washed it up and let her have at it, and to tell the truth I liked using it better than the electric one.

Angel Eyes, fixed herself a couple of cups of juice, and offered to squeeze some for anyone else who wanted it.

The next day I decided to do another batch and used the old juicer for the entire recipe. It worked great. If you would like to try making a batch yourself, I'm including a link to the recipe here, at Pots and Pins, a food and quilting blog that I plan to peruse more closely after the holidays.