Articles
Preserve It! Sunshine in a Jar!
By Laurie Lewis, UCCE Master Food Preserver of El Dorado County
published in the Mountain Democrat February 7, 2024
What do Paddington Bear, Queen Victoria (of England), Sir Edmund Hillary (who ascended Mt. Everest in 1953), and the well-known fictional character James Bond have in common? Marmalade!
Paddington Bear kept a jar under his hat, Queen Victoria was smitten by it thereby making it a popular staple, Sir Edmund Hillary carried it as part of his provisions, and James Bond had it as part of his daily breakfast habit. A classic orange marmalade is made with the rather bitter Seville orange, which, despite the blockade in WW2, was allowed to continue to be transported to England because Winston Churchill considered marmalade necessary for the morale of the English people. British recipes of this “sunshine in a jar” date back as far as 1587 in A Book of Cookrye.