With the last of my lemons I made Honey Lemon Marmalade adapted from a recipe I found at Food In Jars. 
It was the most amazing day yesterday. We let the fire go out and I had the windows and doors open. The air wooshed through on the tail of the wind but I did not care. It was FRESH! I just dressed appropriately! But I did not even need a jacket, and my clown suit sulked on its hook all day. As the day warmed up so did the bees and out they came. I took you out to see.
So I had 8 juicy organic lemons left over. Just enough to make the honey lemon marmalade. This is a sensational marmalade. Quite a change from the straight sugar variety.
- 8 lemons (about 4 cups of chopped lemon)
- 1 cup home made honey
- scant 2 cups of sugar
- 1 cup water
Now Marissa added pectin right at the end, but I made a tiny change, don’t tell her, she might get cranky, and I used the seeds to thicken the jam. I do not like it too thick you see. And I am making it to cook with, so it does not need to keep for months.
Cut the lemons into wedges, slice the thin end of the wedge off along with the seeds, flick out and collect any extra seeds. Wrap those slices of pith and the seeds in a small muslin bag to cook with the marmalade.
Put the lemon wedges through a food processor using the slice blade, twice. This was my first attempt at a short cut and it worked very well. Lemon juice and cut fingers do not go well together.
Cook all ingredients plus the muslin bag for about 30 – 45 minutes. Drop tiny bits into a saucer of freezing cold water to test, the marmalade needs to gel into a rolling ball. If it is not thickening to your satisfaction then you could add the pectin. Just a heaped tablespoon, then simmer for about 5 minutes.
Ladle into serilised jars. Lids and rings and into a boiling bath for ten minutes. I omitted the water bath as well because this marmalade is destined for the fridge. But Marissa would encourage you to use the water bath just to be sure.
Stand by though, as this special marmalade is an ingredient in a lovely dinner! I shall cook it for you today. These are the bees in the struggling hive. They were out and about yesterday in the warm as well, and I was much heartened by their vigor. It is not their honey we are using today, they were left with all their honey for winter food.
Today is also destined to be warm. No fire to warm the house today. No-one will be inside anyway!! After doing the barn I shall be hanging the clothes out on the line to dry. Later today we are off to the junk yard to find something we can turn into a harvest table. I shall take the camera in case there are treasures! You can have a wee excursion!
Good Morning!
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
100 responses to “Honey Lemon Marmalade on a lovely late Winter Day”
What a treat to have a warm day! In your hemisphere Feb 2 is the festival of First Light. In Celtic times it was called Brigid, in honour of the fire goddess, and in Christian times Candlemas. It marks the halfway point between winter solstice and spring equinox, and is when I always notice the increase in the light. Here in the southern hemisphere it is the reverse: First Fruits, also with Celtic origins. If you check my latest blog post you can find out more.
So glad to see your bees creeping out and enjoying the warmth.
Could you send a jar over please! It must be getting warmer if the bees came out 🙂
Look forward to the Junk Yard Sale…hope you manage to give us a few shots. With your unique eye, it’ll be good!
Wow. I’m so impressed. What beautiful looking marmalade. I love the clarity in the jars. I have heard your winter is extremely mild but our summer has been miserable. A friend in NYC told me it was 16C there today but it was only 17.5C here! What is going on??? How wonderful for you to have your bees come out to play and for you to be able to go outside without all that thermal gear. What a treat! Looking forward to the recipe using the marmalade.
Your marmalade has such a beautiful color and must have a lovely sweet tang. I’m looking forward to your recipe using it.
So pleased you were able to enjoy such a lovely day Celi and what a tasty sounding recipe – it looks so delicious.
🙂 Mandy
This sounds absolutely stellar! I love marmalade but have never made it at home. Perhaps this will inspire me (though the honey’ll have to be from the farmer’s market!)
Thanks for sharing!
Farmers market honey is some of the best!! This is really simple to make! c
We’ve been making marmalade today too, but I haven’t seen any bees, so very cheering to see yours out and about! We have finally got a little cold weather here and the weathermen are so excited about it, their voices go up an octave 😉
Marmalades get such little credit. Thanks for the mouth-watering post!
True Annie, because of their tartness i think. .. i love marmalade! c
Love this recipe. Don’t even have to wait for the summer garden to start producing!
Great recipe! I took Meyer lemons (a mix of lemon and mandarin) off the tree. I used only 1 1/2 cup raw honey. No sugar. No pectin. I cooked with the seeds. The result is closer to a sour-lemon curd. It’s lovely when you want a sweet and sour taste, for example, on pound cake with whipped cream or ice cream, in hot tea or in lemon bars. Thank you!
excellent, i just made a pound cake too!! i will remember this, I prefer not to use sugar if I can! c