Now if you’re not obsessive about marmalade swipe ahead now. But if you’re obsessed in a @marmaladeawards way with all the pithy detail in citrus preserve making you’ll love this as I did.
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So I’m here in #Hiroshima at #Japan’s oldest and most renowned preserving companies Aohata (brother company to #kewpiemayo) helping to stir excitement about next May’s @yawatahama_marmalade_festival. So I knew I had a sold-out demonstration marmalade workshop in the morning but I didn’t know I was running a small hands-on workshop in the afternoon with everyone making their own marmalade. So I realise, eek ????, I don’t have enough Yawatahama #Iyokan for everyone to use.
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So I ask if there’s anywhere locally we can buy some citrus fruit fast, knowing that we’re in a slightly remote part of Japan away from the main citrus farms, and really needing marmalade quality fruit. So everyone starts thinking but not able to suggest anywhere we can buy some. Then one of the directors of Aohata, Utsunomiya-san, says jokingly “you could cut some daidai from the trees growing outside #aohatajamdeck”. So we dashed outside and wowowow, three beautiful small trees still laden with oranges.
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The first was a small bitter orange tree, #citrusaurantium – the same species of bitter orange that the #sevilleorange belongs to – and another variety, #citrusnatsudaidai – a Japanese species of #pomelo, plus a #citrussinensis #navelorange.
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So I was able to pick these tree ripened fruit at their best, with both rock-hard skin thick with pith yet wonderfully full of sweet juice. Boiling took much longer but I was left with the most gorgeous soft fleshy pith and cooking liquid that was full of pectin.
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Very excited about this three-fruit marmalade we’ll make tomorrow afternoon.
