By now you all know I love foraging in southern Arizona. On my to-do list this year is collecting mesquite pods to dry in the sun and mill into flour for biscotti and pancakes.
I have a grapefruit tree in my backyard, so it’s not really foraging when I pick the fruit each March. But it does leave me with the gargantuan task of processing the hundreds of grapefruits I get each year from my single tree.
I give away as many as I can – bring them to work, place a box on the sidewalk with a “free!” sign and send care packages to the few friends I have left who are not on statins.
That leaves me with plenty. Of course, I juice a bunch for the freezer so I can make Palomas all year round.
This year I dove into marmalade making – something I admit was intimidating to me. As per my usual approach to a new technique, I read everything I could on the subject and apparently there is more than one way to marmalade. (Yes, I am verbing it).
The method I settled on was to peel the zest from the grapefruits in large sections and then boil them until soft. That made them easy and quick to julienne. Then I sectioned out the fruit, squeezed the carcasses for more juice and boiled this all together with a lot of sugar. There was no getting away from the sugar. Once the mixture reached 220F I canned it in a hot water bath. I figured each pint jar held two grapefruits.
The results were incredible. I am not exaggerating when I say the marmalade tasted like spoonfuls of sunshine. We have been schmearing it on my husband’s homemade sourdough toast daily. I also heat it up with some minced fresh jalapeno from my garden (so easy to grow year round here) and use it as a glaze for blackened mahi.
Now I am eyeing at all the fruit my pomegranate trees look like they will give me this year and am making plans.
