One of Jaci’s favourite ways to use lemons is by making lemon marmalade, which she has perfected over the years.
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Jaci Hicken
Jaci Hicken, a seasoned Riv journalist and trained chef, shares her wealth of knowledge on growing, cooking and preserving homegrown produce. In this edition, Jaci is stuck in the citrus patch with her non-existent lemon trees.
Standing in my patch, eating a freshly picked mandarin, I’m reminded just as much of my gardening failures as my gardening successes.
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And even though the patch currently has 14 citrus trees, all bearing fruit, over the past 17 years of establishing and maintaining my garden, the ability to grow a lemon has evaded me.
You see, lemon trees don’t like wet feet.
And it turns out that the spot, in the same area of the garden as the other citrus trees are planted, where the lemons were to lay their roots was soggy.
After a couple of years in the ground, both my Meyer and Eureka lemon curled up their leaves, drowned in the sogginess and keeled over.
These are the things you learn about gardening, where things grow best in your patch and where not to plant something.
There is now a native fig in that spot, which likes the sogginess and is flourishing, but will take many years to reach a size to produce anything.
Don’t worry though, I’m giving lemons yet another shot and have planted them further into the garden, as fruit trees in the wild greens bed, which has well drained soil.
With fingers crossed and a prayer to the fruit tree god, Pomona, there will be homegrown lemons in a year or two.
Cooking a lot means that lemons seem to be something always needed in my kitchen.
Living in a small country town, someone always has a tree overflowing with fruit and has more than enough lemons to spare a basketful.
At the monthly local food swap, someone, usually more than one person, brings lemons, which means coming home with enough to tide me over to the next month.
One of my favourite ways to preserve lemons is to make lemon marmalade.
Early on when cooking this lemon marmalade, it didn’t fully set and was runny, so over the years, I've cooked it for a bit longer and now it sets just fine.
If your marmalade turns out a bit too runny, there are other things you can do with it, like make a cake, or put a couple of spoonfuls under the curd in a lemon meringue tart (or just don’t care that it is too runny).
You cooked it, and it still tastes yummy, so enjoy the fruits of preserving and have the marmalade on toast for brekkie.
Lemon marmalade
This recipe is a really slow recipe, taking a couple of days from start to finish. Like everything you cook, slow down and take the time to enjoy preserving.
Jaci’s lemon marmalade recipe is a slow process, taking a couple of days from start to finish.
Ingredients
2 lemons
500ml of water
550 grams of sugar
4 grams of salt
Water, extra
Method
Cover the lemons with the extra water in a non-corrosive bowl. Add salt and stand for 36 hours.
Remove lemons from the brine and rinse.
Squeeze the juice from the lemons, then add 400ml of water to the juice. Put the juice and water mixture in the fridge, until you need it.
Keep the rinds, you will be using the whole fruit by the end of the recipe.
The recipe involves soaking lemons in brine, preserving the whole fruit, and simmering the mixture with sugar until it sets.
Scoop the pulp, including the seeds from the rinds into a small, non-corrosive bowl. Add the remaining 100ml of water and place in the fridge for 12 hours.
Put the lemon skins in the bowl of a food processor and process until pulped. Place the lemon skins in with the lemon juice and water mixture. Stand for 12 hours in the fridge.
After 12 hours, strain the pulp, seeds and water mixture. Add the resulting liquid to the lemon juice mixture.
Place the lemon mixture in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer point over low heat. Simmer for 45 minutes.
Add the sugar and raise the heat to high. Bring to a boil quickly. Boil rapidly until the marmalade sets, approximately 45 minutes.
Stand for 5 minutes before bottling and sealing.
This recipe for lemon marmalade makes approximately eight 250ml jars.
Share your marmalade secrets and what to do if you have too many lemons with Jaci atjaci.hicken@mmg.com.au
This lemon marmalade recipe yields approximately eight 250ml jars, which can be shared or stored for personal use.
