Sauces & Jams · By Sharon
Apricot, Orange Marmalade
Both James' mom and a dear aunt, Aunt Annie, made this marmalade every August with Okanagan fruit. We stayed at Aunt Annie and Uncle Nick's home on our way up to Paddle Prairie for our first teaching jobs in August of 1985, and Aunt Annie had made a big batch. It was a bit runny, so she dumped all the jars back into a pot to cook it down a little longer, which was my first lesson in working with jam consistency. I've been carrying on this marmalade tradition for many years now, and it's become a family classic. In the winter, when we open a new jar, we call it "sunshine jam." James uses a hammer and pliers to break open the apricot stones to reveal the pits after I've cut off the fruit (a normal nutcracker tends to crush the pits), and these pits play a vital role in the final flavor of this vibrant marmalade.
Ingredients
- 6 cups cut up ripe apricots — just cut each into 6 or 8 wedges
- 6 cups sugar
- Peel of 1 orange and 1 lemon, cut into thin strips
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Enough apricot pits to put 2 in each jar of marmalade (not the whole stone)
Method
- 1
In a large pot, cook the cut up apricots for a few minutes with a bit of water to soften them up.
- 2
Add the sugar, the orange and lemon peel strips, and the cut up orange flesh.
- 3
Cook for 35 minutes or until thickened to desired consistency.
- 4
Add juice of one large lemon and cook for 5 more minutes.
- 5
Put into sterilized jars — adding 2 apricot pits to each jar (3 if using larger jars).
A note from Sharon
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