Thursday thrills

I spent a chunk of this dreary, rainy afternoon whittling away at my Stansborough Grey knitting—nearly through the body of the shawl now, only a few rows left before I begin knitting on an edging—



and overseeing the transformation of my oranges and lavender into beautiful marmalade.



The lavender is a very subtle flavour, which you can smell more than taste. I think it's an excellent complement to the citrusy bitterness of the oranges. There's not so much sugar present that the marmalade is overpoweringly sweet; it's a refreshing tangy taste, not cloying or candylike.



I don't want to bombard you all with process photographs (mostly, "process documentation" was the pretext for practicing with a shiny new camera and lens), but there's a photoset here in case you want to make marmalade with me. For instructions, you can't do much better than Shuna Fish Lydon's warm, humane, encouraging direction—I use the proportion of fruit to sugar and the steps she outlines in that post. If you want to can your marmalade, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidelines. I didn't can mine because one of the jars is for me to eat immediately, another jar is a birthday gift for a friend who will eat it immediately, and the last jar is also for me to eat immediately—these guys are destined to live in the fridge until consumed.