In years past the oranges began to sweeten just days after the winter solstice. This year the harvest started a but late but, no matter I am so glad for the abundance!
Each day we have made smoothies and juices with the oranges as they ripened and fell from the tree. I also wanted to save some of the bounty for later on in spring and summer when oranges will be gone from the trees completely. So, I climbed up into the tree to pick a couple of basket fulls of the succulent fruits to make jelly with.
I followed a recipe in an old book. Well, to be more accurate, I took inspiration from the images in the book. I am not really one to follow recipes exactly and, for some reason, my citrus jellies always turn out.
As an herbalist I love to add a bit of medicine to whatever I make. The peel of the orange (and other citrus peels too) have a lot of medicinal properties. Over and above the peel is a great digestive tonic. Personally I love the interplay between the sweetness of the juice & sugar and the slightly bitter taste of the peel. So, half of the oranges were juiced and the other half blended up and added to the boiling pot.
Instead of refined, white sugar, I used organic "blonde" sugar (also called raw sugar though I am not sure that it really is raw). I find that this sugar is ideal for making jelly, much better than evaporated cane sugar which leaves the jelly with a brown color and even better than white sugar which seems artificially sweet.
After a little over and hour on the stove the jelly was very firm and ready to be put into the sterilized jars. We have a LOT of jars in our house and are trying to use them up and get rid of any we don't need. Instead of having a collection of empty jars laying around I picked out the best one, cleaned and thoroughly sterilized them by boiling them in water and bought new lids. I did this the day previous so that the jars were ready to go when the jelly was done.
As more fruits ripen there will be many more jars to add to our stores. On frozen mornings when we have no fresh fruit in the house it is a special treat to drink a steaming cup of coffee with homemade jelly on (hopefully) homemade toast. We are far from growing our own grains and most of our meals are still store bought but, I am happy to have kept up with the tradition of making my own citrus jelly each and every winter.