Lemon Marmalade﻿

Lemon Marmalade

11/4/2015

I have had a lemon tree for about 8 years and up until this year, it's been less than productive - pathetic really. I call it my little Charlie Brown tree because I normally get 1 lemon a year from my sorry little lemon tree. Last spring I finally gave up on it and I pulled it out of it's pot and threw it in a flower bed next to the garbage can so that it could be disposed of on trash day. Sure enough, when trash day rolled around I bent down to pick up my tree and I noticed some fresh, new growth. I didn't have the heart to throw away a plant that with such a strong will to survive so I stuck it back in its original pot, pushed it into the corner and decided to let fate take its course.

Fast forward 2 months to Spring and I had a beautiful, thriving lemon tree with dozens of tiny lemons on the ends of its long healthy branches. It's been 9 months now since that day I yanked my little tree from it's pot and today, I've got a bumper crop of lemons.

I decided that I needed to do something extra special with my super resilient lemons. After all, if they can survive me, they deserve to be used it in an extraordinary way. What better way to highlight my precious fruit than to turn it into a simple marmalade using just three ingredients: lemon, sugar and water? Canning my lemon marmalade was a great way to preserve my lemons so that I can enjoy them all year.

Turns out - even with just 3 ingredients, making lemon marmalade isn't as easy to make as you might think. My first attempt at lemon jam was a disaster. The finished jam had a very unpleasant bitter aftertaste. I made some adjustments and gave my lemon marmalade another shot. My second attempt turned out MUCH better. Never fear - you can always count on me to make all the mistakes so that you won't have to. Now that I've perfected my lemon marmalade recipe - I hope that you'll try it - even if you don't have your own lemon tree - works just at well with supermarkets lemons.

Lemon Marmalade
4 cups of chopped lemons (about 10 lemons)
4 cups water
4 cups sugar

Quarter the lemons.

Separate the fruit from the peel. Save peels.

Remove seeds from fruit and cut white core from top. Cut into 1/4 inch triangles.

Carefully filet white skin from the inside of the peel.

Thinly slice peels into strips.

Add peel strips to cut fruit.

Add water, cover and refrigerate 3-4 hours.

Pour into a pot and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour.

Simmer mixture until temperature reaches 220. I use a thermapen to check my temperature regularly.

While waiting for mixture to reach temperature, wash and dry jars. Put them in a 200 degree oven to warm.

Pour boiling water over lids to sterilize.

Working quickly, pour 220 degree jam mixture into glass measuring cup and carefully pour into warm jars. Mixture should be thin but will thicken as it cools.