Actually I should call it jam. Or fruit preserve. In English, the term “marmalade” should only be applied to those that are solely made of citrus fruits, which is not the case in this post. But if you excuse me, I will use this term, as I’m quite used to it.

We have a long tradition of cooking marmalade at home. I remember those enormous pots in which we used to cook the fruit for almost 2 days together. It demanded quite some work and the cooking itself was a long procedure. We usually did it end of August, as soon as our plums were mature enough. It was the only fruit we ever used to make the marmalade of.

Homemade marmalade can really not compare with the store-bought one, I mean, 50% of sugar is just not my thing… and let’s forget about 60%. Besides, they usually put inside much more things than just fruit and sugar. And even since I’ve started cooking on my own, I’ve become somehow picky about the kind of food I buy or eat. Once you make something by yourself, it’s quite difficult to go back to the “buying” habit. Honestly, I haven’t bought bread for the last 2 years because mine tastes so much better. Same as I haven’t eaten any other marmalade than homemade one. And while until a year ago I had only assisted to cooking, this year I did it all by myself.

It all started at the end of this June, when my Dad supplied me with plenty of home grown cherry plums. We would rather call them “marabele” or even “ringló”, depending on the region. In Spanish they would be called “ciruelas” and usually you could find them in green colour. The ones of my Dad were pretty reddish, a bit acid and as such just perfect for marmalade. I cooked a pair of jars and within two weeks they were empty. Simply delicious.

After this first attempt, I involved myself into several other projects – I have a wish to make marmalades from as many different fruits as possible. On my list there are currently 5 that I’ve made already:
- cherry plum,
- yellow peach and vanilla,
- pear and cinnamon,
- nectarina and cinnamon and
- plum marmalade.

… each of them so unique and tasty. I combine 70% fruit with 30% cane sugar, if the fruit is sweet enough by itself, I might even do it 80/20, plus I always add some juice of lemon. It doesn’t only prevent the oxidation of fruit while I’m preparing it, it also helps the fruit to keep its original flavour.

And then, plums came this year around the beginning of August, much earlier than usually. It took me 2 weekends to cook and preserve the stock of 20 kilos of plums I got from home. What an adventure!