winter jams might be my new favorite activity. it’s cold outside but so cozy inside. hot water canner steaming up the kitchen windows. in these summer months, the heat can feel like too much, but now it feels just right.

our local co-op had some cara cara orange and other citrus on sale and griffin has eaten through our stash of summer preserves, so I thought i’d try my hand at marmalade. i picked up a box of pomona’s pectin and used the recipe in the box to make this honey sweetened marmalade.

i’m sharing the recipe below with you. this marmalade is perfectly tangy and a lovely addition to brighten up our winter breakfast routine.

HONEY SWEETENED ORANGE MARMALADE

(recipe adapted from Pomona’s Pectin)

Ingredients

4 oranges
½ grapefruit
3 cups water
3 teaspoons calcium water
3 Tablespoons lemon or lime juice
1 cup to 1½ cups honey or 2 cups to 3 cups sugar
4½ teaspoons Pomona’s pectin powder

Before You Begin

Prepare calcium water. To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well. Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.

Directions

1) Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in water bath canner filled with water and, bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Wash lids and rings with hot water.

2) Peel 2 of the oranges and scrape the white from the back of the peel. Thinly slice the peel and cut into strips about 1 to 1½ inches long. Put peel slices into sauce pan.

3) Peel the remaining 2 oranges and the grapefruit. Remove seeds and membrane from all 4 oranges and ½ grapefruit, and finely chop the pulp of all, retaining as much of the juice as possible. Add chopped pulp and juice to the sauce pan with the peel.

4) Add 3 cups water to the sauce pan. Bring fruit to a boil, then turn heat down and simmer covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and measure out 6 cups of fruit mixture. Return 6 cups of fruit mixture to the sauce pan.

5) Add calcium water and lemon or lime juice, and mix well.

6) Measure sugar or room temperature honey into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set aside.

7) Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the marmalade comes back up to a boil. Once the marmalade returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.

8) Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.