For us at Wild Side January means only one thing - Seville Marmalade.
Seveille Oranges come from, would you believe it, the area around Seville in Southern Spain and we were rather delighted to see some gowing along the High Street in Gibraltar when we visited in November. But this discovery wasn't going to get us very far becuse we need a LOT of Sevilles to satisfy the demand of our customers. So it was off to the Wholesale market at 6.00am in the first week of January to buy 56 kilos of these gems of cirtus loveliness.
But buying the fruit is only the start because to get the process going we have to squeeze the juice out, remove the mesocarp (the white pithy bit) and then slice the exocarp (outer rind) ever so thinly, and thas before the cooking even begins. As I sat in the kitchen slicing the final batch of Oranges I found myself idly wondering how many I had chopped up in the last three weeks, and as near as I can guess the tally came to about 500. No wonder my fingers ache!
We just hope we have made enough because there will be no more available for another 12 months.