We Be Jammin' Harvest Moon Marmalade

Pomelo orchard near Jioulio Waterfall

Its Autumn in Yilan and like everyone in Taiwan, we have pomelo fruits coming out of our ears.

 Its the gift that keeps on giving, but I prefer it more than moon cakes, lesser calories and more healthy.

Pomelos (Citrus Maxima) are an ancient grapefruit, but much larger and sweeter than their newer descendants. Its the largest citrus fruit and in Taiwan the flesh is white/pale yellow.

 My work gave each of us a hefty box, with a dozen pomelos for Mid- Autumn festival, plus my building gave each of us several, so not wanting to waste I decided to make marmalade with my daughter.

It was a bit labor intensive to say the least. We had to peel them all and the rind is much thicker and stronger than other citrus fruit. Then we separated the yummy flesh from the inedible skin. Our hands were burning from removing the fruit,we had to rinse them several times. While we did that, I boiled the rind three times with fresh water before slicing thinly and adding to the boiling mixture (I dont have a food processor).

The recipe I found was 4 cups of sugar to 1 pomelo and we used 5 pomelos (I still have quite few left). Feeling uber-creative I decided to add some pomegranate fruits, inspired by the season of Autumn. I thought seeing the seeds suspended in the marmalade would look cool. It just made the final batch orange (pale yellow + blood red = orange).

My daughter removing the sweet flesh from the bitter skin

I had to buy some props for teaching from one of those "everything stores" and felt lucky to find different sized jars. I washed and dried them the night before and used the "water bath canning technique." A few days later, I gladly gave my co-workers a small gift to celebrate the season. It still feels like summer around here though!

The final result, Pomelo and Pomegranate Marmalade