In 2024 Scott planted a kumquat tree in the orchard. It is a dwarf Nagami with small oval, bright fruit. This year it has yielded enough fruit to make some marmalade. Apparently that is a job for Scott so I sourced my own fruit from Jacks orchard. He was given the same variety kumquat as a memorial tree after Barry passed away from Bert and Nardine.

Wow, how many ways are there to make Kumquat marmalade? So many.

I found a recipe in a Ball blue book guide to preserving. Scott helped cut the fruit up into quarters to be soaked in water over night. The instructions made me nervous as I felt I needed to cut the peel into fine strips. It’s true, I know very little about making marmalade so I read as much information as i could find. I read through books and searched online for all the tips and tricks I could find. I also used a tip from Scotts Mum, Glen. Glen made a lot of marmalade and she would always wrap the seeds in a muslin bag and put it in the pot with the jam to assist with setting.

How do you know how long to cook the jam? Well I didn’t. I can recall my Mum using the saucer in the freezer method. Mum would place a spoon of jam on a saucer in the freezer and leave it a few minutes to cool. If the jam wrinkled or formed a skin when pushed with her finger she would be satisfied that the Jam was good and ready to bottle.

I wasn’t confident that this would work for me and I didn’t want another bottle of syrup for icecream like my attempt at peach jam produced.

I had a sugar thermometer so I decided to use it. How hard could it be?

It wasn’t hard it was just about getting up to temp that proved difficult.

Gelling point for jam is 104 deg C and it took a long time to get my jam to near to this point. I have read that due to our altitude being over 300 mtrs it is likely that jam will gel at a slightly lower temperature so I crossed my fingers and started bottling.

The end result was delicious.

I can’t share my recipe here however I can strongly recommend purchasing Ball blue book guide to preserving. It is a fantastic reference and it has so many great recipes.