Do I even like marmalade?

Since getting the call to start a garden, and recruiting some amazing friends, I've been reading, watching and practicing. I've learned more about growing my own food in the past month than I've learned in my entire life. It can be overwhelming!

One thing I've come to enjoy about fresh foods is making jams. My future mother-in-law, Pam, and I have been trying out new recipes together. Pam is a veteran when it comes to blackberries, raspberries and the like. She gets all her berries from a local farm, Waterman's. They're small, tart, and delicious. When you mash them, boil them, add some pectin and sugar, you can't go wrong. Even the color is wonderful! Blackberries, when cooked, turn a rich violet color. Maybe I've decided what color to paint my bedroom; blackberry violet?

During our latest jam session (aren't I clever?) Pam and I ventured outside our comfort zones. She had a bag of oranges on their last leg, and a spare box of pectin. What does spare ingredients and a few bored women equal? New recipe! Pam and I recruited my fiance, Chris, to start zesting oranges and lemons for orange marmalade. The recipe looked more difficult than we were used to. It required zesting the fruits, then peeling them, then chopping them, boiling them for 30 minutes . . . we weren't sure we could do it correctly. To add, none of us were sure we even liked marmalades.

The kitchen air filled with the scent of fresh citrus. Delicious. But as I started the first boil . . . yuck. The zest smelled bitter. I began to worry. I added the chopped fruit for the second boil. A little better. If nothing else, it turned a beautiful orange color. We added the pectin and sugar and let it boil a bit more before moving it into our mason jars. The recipe said that it could take 2 weeks to set, so we planned to wait. Apparently, though, we did something right. They set in about 24 hours! The next day, I tried our creation at breakfast. We did good, friends! Orange marmalade, as long as the texture doesn't bug you, is more than tolerable. It's quite lovely.

The point of this post? I want you all to taste new things! Try new recipes, don't fear making something gross! Go to your farmer's market and pick a few things you can't pronounce. Even if your recipe doesn't turn out well, you've branched out. That can't ever be bad.

Keep praying for our garden! God bless you all!