Superb. I remember that video of Paddington having afternoon tea with the Queen. We’ll miss her dreadfully. Sigh.
Beautiful story too. You’re a dab hand with a knife! Very neat work. And the litres and litres (or pints and pints) (jars and jars) of wonderful condiments!! Your Mum is amazing.
I’m licking my lips over here. Cosy, comforting, delightful reading. And more terrific art too.
Thanks so much for sharing. A lovely way to end my day. Sending heaps of hugs and best wishes. 🤗🤗😘😘💕
That little film was shown right at the very beginning of the evening jubilee concert outside Buckingham Palace - I remember sitting down at the TV expecting the concert to start, and thought '...hang on a minute, what's this?' It was gorgeous!
I'm glad all my talk of marmalade got your mouth watering, Beth! Thank you so very much for reading and commenting - I really appreciate you! 😘
I too am on team marmalade! My family pantry growing up was like an archeological dig of what went down in years gone by as it never seemed to all get eaten in one year!
Thank you for sharing your gorgeous artwork Rebecca, it nourishes my soul. I love the oranges, it’s gorgeous!!
I just finished eating toast (sourdough) with lime and pear marmalade- very good, which I got for Yule from my ex husband’s wife’s sister. She also makes great salsa!
So, I was wondering why you don’t take the pith off of the orange peel. That is what is bitter.
Thank you for the clips, and those slices look so even! Wow. And were cut quickly. Bravo!
I kept thinking someone was going to break out with the Queen song after listening to the drums lol.
Lime and pear marmalade - that sounds absolutely gorgeous, Julie!
Good point about the pith, although that's kind of the thing about marmalade, the fact that it has that bitter kick. Seville oranges are very much more bitter than any other marmalade fruit I've come across, though, and I think that's why I came to that kind of marmalade last in my evolutionary taste preferences. Lime, lemon and marmalade made from dessert oranges rather than bitter oranges are much easier on the taste buds, although they do still have that marmalade bitterness!
You're absolutely right, by the way, about the Queen song. The opener for the Queen's jubilee concert - which was immediately preceded by the Paddington sketch - was in fact 'We Will Rock You'! I thought it was really clever how the Queen and her bear friend had started the intro with their spoons like that. 🤣
I thought I was listening to the opening of We Will Rock you! Thank you for that confirmation!
I think even with the removal of pith that the marmalade would still be a bit bitter.
My favorite at this point is Bonnie Maman’s. I read somewhere that they secretly helped the Jews during the holocaust, but we don’t really have confirmation of that story.
You'd spotted it straight away, Julie - kudos to your musical ear!
You're right about the bitterness, I'd say - but without it marmalade would be sorely lacking in its USP. I LOVE Bonne Maman strawberry jam - those French jammers make EXCELLENT confiture. Perfect on a warm croissant - or indeed toasted toast, if we're going to be German about it! 😉
That's so interesting about the war connection - gosh! I might have to do an online search or two to find out more. I love these fascinating rabbit holes that open up in the brilliant comments thread here on Substack - thank you! ☺️
I leaned my nose over the video with the orange slurry boiling away. I swear I could smell the bracing sweet sourness, and no boiling splooshes in my eyes. Heavenly! A great source of Vitamin C.
Lime marmalade! Yes! On toast, on scones, on biscuits ( American)! Still developing a taste for Seville orange marmalade. Acquired A passion for pear butter this past Christmas. Hurrah for all good things to put on toast!
Oh what a delightful and yummy post Rebecca! I love the word marmalade and this is so timely as my children and I just watched the movie Paddington! We loved it and we craved marmalade after. :) Thank you so much for the smiles. Enjoy your weekend.
Love this ode to marmalade! My English family is team orange marmalade all the time, and I do love it now too. I don’t eat much bread anymore, but when I do, it better have marmalade (and peanut butter, but I try not to broadcast that very loudly when I’m
Ooooh, I've never teamed marmalade with peanut butter, Sabrina!
I hear you on the bread thing. I was very low carb for years in an effort to better manage my type 1 diabetes, but these days, now I'm using an insulin pump rather than injections, bread (and sometimes marmalade) makes it onto the menu from time to time!
I LOVED peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches when I was little. We literally took it at its word and treated it as butter.... 🤣
Love your view of peanut butter as butter. A girl after my own heart! And orange and peanut butter flavours are lovely together!
Using peanut butter gives me a sense that there is something solid that will stick in my stomach after all the sugars and carbs spike and wash away. That's my excuse, anyway! Glad your new tech gives you some additional flexibility in what you can eat!
Orange marmalade has never been top of my list, probably because my mother was too devoted to anything raspberry, but it is a favorite of my husband. I'm sure I'd enjoy yours, though. Made from scratch with so much dedication--what's not to love!? I'm interested in the different jars and tops used for your family's preserves. It looks like you've called recycled containers into action? Is that possible?
Your art continues to impress and inspire, Rebecca. If you weren't such a talented writer, I'd suggest you missed a calling! :)
Oh yes, we always reuse jars! Every now and again lids end up in the recycling - if they start to rust, or the seals don't look good - and are replaced with new ones, but a lot of jars are simple ones which have come from the supermarket originally containing commercially-produced stuff like sauces or preserves or whatever. They're all cleaned and put away, and then sterilised right before anything gets preserved in them.
Oooooh, I remember raspberry jam from my childhood - I never liked it very much because of all the pips. Sometimes we'd strain it and call it raspberry jelly, though. My favourite was always strawberry jam.
Thank you for such very kind words about my art, Elizabeth! How lovely. 🥰
Oh wow, really?! That's so interesting!! I'd better not tell you that I use empty ice-cream and cream-cheese tubs instead of Tupperware in the freezer then, had I?! 🤫
The hard stare! 😂 gosh I wish I liked marmalade. I’ve watched Paddington countless times with the kids and still can’t enchant myself to eat marmalade. This was a wonderful read - thank you Rebecca! ✨ 🫙✨
Love the post and your orange illustration. My grandmother had a dented old canning kettle with a scorched wooden handle. Last summer I got to stand in her kitchen (we are renovating her house) and make applesauce from the trees she and my grandfather planted, in her kettle. Such overwhelming memories!
Oh Kerry, thank you for your kind words, but even more thanks for sharing this gorgeous story about you making applesauce from your grandparents' trees in your grandmother's canning kettle. What an amazing experience - coming full circle. Wonderful!
The Paddington Bear video was the BEST! I've not heard that before and will be hunting down more episodes. I love your marmalade art and the description of its process. Makes me want to get out my gesso and paint and give it a try. I think I may have had marmalade once in my life. (I'm a jam girl and Jim is the JimiJamm king when it comes to making blueberry jam). It would be fun to be a very small not-to-scale me in your mum's kitchen to watch both of you during marmalade production.
It was such a gorgeous series, Mary - the music was superb, and Michael Hordern had just the perfect voice for the job. I always thought it was so clever that Paddington was 'real' and the backgrounds and other characters were all paper and ink.
I love that you've called your Jim the 'JimiJamm king' - that's brilliant! We don't really grow blueberries over here, but I do like them. The soft-fruit pick-your-own farms in the summer when I was little would have strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries.
My first draft of this post had been about marmalade, pickle and jam - but it has grown so long that I had to rein it in to being only about marmalade! Watch out for a jam post in the summer! 🤣
You'd be welcome as a fly-on-the wall any time, Mary - but if you come as full-size Mary you could help me with that giant stirring spoon!
Love your marmalade collage, Rebecca! And, the rest of your artwork. I've also never seen how it is made so thank you for sharing the process. Beautiful and heartwarming story with your parents. Now I want some marmalade for breakfast.
Oh thank you, Stella - that means such a lot coming from you - you're the collage queen of my Substack inbox! I'm glad I got your taste buds seeking out some marmalade for breakfast - you know it makes sense! 🍊
I LOVE marmalade on my toast in the morning and despite that I'm trying so hard to have porridge with greek yoghurt and fruit for its sustained high energy, I crave marmalade. Maybe I can put a spoonful on top of the Greek yoghurt.
My grandson is a marmalade sandwich kid and asked me to make marmalade icecream which I think would be rather beautiful and I must do it before the weekend.
My mum was just like your mum (how lucky you are to still have her) and would make annual marmalade along with lots of other things like sauce, chutney and jams. I tried but mine was really runny, despite re-boiling it and adding a thing called Jamsetta. I too love the lime marmalade but my favourite is Baxters. But the jars aren't big enough!!!
Your artwork is super - especially as a collage. Love collage and if they have text woven through, I'm even happier.
Marmalade DEFINITELY counts as 'fruit', Prue - I reckon you're onto a winner! I love that your grandson is channelling his inner Paddington - and wow, marmalade ice cream sounds amazing! I made chocolate orange marmalade pots at the weekend - oh my goodness, marmalade as an ingredient is fabulous. I often make marmalade cake, too, but usually using lime or lemon marmalade rather than Seville orange.
Mum always soaks the orange pips in the juice overnight, and it's that process that makes the marmalade set - or so I understand it. For jams, though, she uses pectin (which I guess is what Jamsetta is - over here we have a brand called Certo) which she buys in bottles. These days you can get 'jam sugar', which has pectin in it, somehow, but I don't think she ever uses that.
Thank you for your collage compliment! I love using newspaper in my art, and it's fun to see the words coming through. 😊
I enjoyed reading this! I like marmalade too.
Those paddington bear videos are so endearing. 💕
Awww, thank you so much! 😊
Superb. I remember that video of Paddington having afternoon tea with the Queen. We’ll miss her dreadfully. Sigh.
Beautiful story too. You’re a dab hand with a knife! Very neat work. And the litres and litres (or pints and pints) (jars and jars) of wonderful condiments!! Your Mum is amazing.
I’m licking my lips over here. Cosy, comforting, delightful reading. And more terrific art too.
Thanks so much for sharing. A lovely way to end my day. Sending heaps of hugs and best wishes. 🤗🤗😘😘💕
That little film was shown right at the very beginning of the evening jubilee concert outside Buckingham Palace - I remember sitting down at the TV expecting the concert to start, and thought '...hang on a minute, what's this?' It was gorgeous!
I'm glad all my talk of marmalade got your mouth watering, Beth! Thank you so very much for reading and commenting - I really appreciate you! 😘
Excellent post! I’m a big fan of marmelade and enjoy making various variations. A recent one was clementine and mustard seed ... lovely on sourdough!
Thanks, Bryan! Clementine and mustard seed - gosh, what a fabulous-sounding combination!
I too am on team marmalade! My family pantry growing up was like an archeological dig of what went down in years gone by as it never seemed to all get eaten in one year!
Thank you for sharing your gorgeous artwork Rebecca, it nourishes my soul. I love the oranges, it’s gorgeous!!
'...like an archaeological dig' - that's EXACTLY it, Donna!!! And thank you for your very kind words. 😘
Awww thank you so much for the mention!! I appreciate you!!! And I loved your newsletter too!!! Good collaging!! Keep going!!! 💚💚💚
Such a pleasure! You're an inspiration to me, Sue! 😊
The feeling is mutual!!! 😘💚💚
*glowing*
😊😊😊
I just finished eating toast (sourdough) with lime and pear marmalade- very good, which I got for Yule from my ex husband’s wife’s sister. She also makes great salsa!
So, I was wondering why you don’t take the pith off of the orange peel. That is what is bitter.
Thank you for the clips, and those slices look so even! Wow. And were cut quickly. Bravo!
I kept thinking someone was going to break out with the Queen song after listening to the drums lol.
Thanks once again!
Lime and pear marmalade - that sounds absolutely gorgeous, Julie!
Good point about the pith, although that's kind of the thing about marmalade, the fact that it has that bitter kick. Seville oranges are very much more bitter than any other marmalade fruit I've come across, though, and I think that's why I came to that kind of marmalade last in my evolutionary taste preferences. Lime, lemon and marmalade made from dessert oranges rather than bitter oranges are much easier on the taste buds, although they do still have that marmalade bitterness!
You're absolutely right, by the way, about the Queen song. The opener for the Queen's jubilee concert - which was immediately preceded by the Paddington sketch - was in fact 'We Will Rock You'! I thought it was really clever how the Queen and her bear friend had started the intro with their spoons like that. 🤣
I thought I was listening to the opening of We Will Rock you! Thank you for that confirmation!
I think even with the removal of pith that the marmalade would still be a bit bitter.
My favorite at this point is Bonnie Maman’s. I read somewhere that they secretly helped the Jews during the holocaust, but we don’t really have confirmation of that story.
You'd spotted it straight away, Julie - kudos to your musical ear!
You're right about the bitterness, I'd say - but without it marmalade would be sorely lacking in its USP. I LOVE Bonne Maman strawberry jam - those French jammers make EXCELLENT confiture. Perfect on a warm croissant - or indeed toasted toast, if we're going to be German about it! 😉
That's so interesting about the war connection - gosh! I might have to do an online search or two to find out more. I love these fascinating rabbit holes that open up in the brilliant comments thread here on Substack - thank you! ☺️
I leaned my nose over the video with the orange slurry boiling away. I swear I could smell the bracing sweet sourness, and no boiling splooshes in my eyes. Heavenly! A great source of Vitamin C.
Ooooooh, you're a risk taker, Peter! 🤣 Mind those splashes, now! 🍊
Lime marmalade! Yes! On toast, on scones, on biscuits ( American)! Still developing a taste for Seville orange marmalade. Acquired A passion for pear butter this past Christmas. Hurrah for all good things to put on toast!
Ooooooh, pear butter sounds absolutely delicious, Susan! You've got my mouth watering!
Oh what a delightful and yummy post Rebecca! I love the word marmalade and this is so timely as my children and I just watched the movie Paddington! We loved it and we craved marmalade after. :) Thank you so much for the smiles. Enjoy your weekend.
Oh, thank you so much, Julie! It's SUCH a fun film, isn't it?! (apart from the toothbrush scene - that one gave me nightmares!!!!!). 🤣
It's a great film. My children want to watch it again. Oh that Toothbrush scene...so gross. LOL!
🤣
Love this ode to marmalade! My English family is team orange marmalade all the time, and I do love it now too. I don’t eat much bread anymore, but when I do, it better have marmalade (and peanut butter, but I try not to broadcast that very loudly when I’m
In the U.K. 🤣)! Thanks for a delightful read!
Ooooh, I've never teamed marmalade with peanut butter, Sabrina!
I hear you on the bread thing. I was very low carb for years in an effort to better manage my type 1 diabetes, but these days, now I'm using an insulin pump rather than injections, bread (and sometimes marmalade) makes it onto the menu from time to time!
I LOVED peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches when I was little. We literally took it at its word and treated it as butter.... 🤣
Love your view of peanut butter as butter. A girl after my own heart! And orange and peanut butter flavours are lovely together!
Using peanut butter gives me a sense that there is something solid that will stick in my stomach after all the sugars and carbs spike and wash away. That's my excuse, anyway! Glad your new tech gives you some additional flexibility in what you can eat!
🍊 ➕ 🥜 🟰 😍
Orange marmalade has never been top of my list, probably because my mother was too devoted to anything raspberry, but it is a favorite of my husband. I'm sure I'd enjoy yours, though. Made from scratch with so much dedication--what's not to love!? I'm interested in the different jars and tops used for your family's preserves. It looks like you've called recycled containers into action? Is that possible?
Your art continues to impress and inspire, Rebecca. If you weren't such a talented writer, I'd suggest you missed a calling! :)
Oh yes, we always reuse jars! Every now and again lids end up in the recycling - if they start to rust, or the seals don't look good - and are replaced with new ones, but a lot of jars are simple ones which have come from the supermarket originally containing commercially-produced stuff like sauces or preserves or whatever. They're all cleaned and put away, and then sterilised right before anything gets preserved in them.
Oooooh, I remember raspberry jam from my childhood - I never liked it very much because of all the pips. Sometimes we'd strain it and call it raspberry jelly, though. My favourite was always strawberry jam.
Thank you for such very kind words about my art, Elizabeth! How lovely. 🥰
Interesting! Recycling commercial jars is strictly verboten here. And, we're told to not reuse canning jar lids as well! 😬🤨🙄
Oh wow, really?! That's so interesting!! I'd better not tell you that I use empty ice-cream and cream-cheese tubs instead of Tupperware in the freezer then, had I?! 🤫
You had me at ice cream. 😅
🤣
The hard stare! 😂 gosh I wish I liked marmalade. I’ve watched Paddington countless times with the kids and still can’t enchant myself to eat marmalade. This was a wonderful read - thank you Rebecca! ✨ 🫙✨
Thanks so much, Claire! Ah yes, Paddington's hard stare is something I've been known to adopt myself when the circumstances require it! 🍊
Love the post and your orange illustration. My grandmother had a dented old canning kettle with a scorched wooden handle. Last summer I got to stand in her kitchen (we are renovating her house) and make applesauce from the trees she and my grandfather planted, in her kettle. Such overwhelming memories!
Oh Kerry, thank you for your kind words, but even more thanks for sharing this gorgeous story about you making applesauce from your grandparents' trees in your grandmother's canning kettle. What an amazing experience - coming full circle. Wonderful!
The Paddington Bear video was the BEST! I've not heard that before and will be hunting down more episodes. I love your marmalade art and the description of its process. Makes me want to get out my gesso and paint and give it a try. I think I may have had marmalade once in my life. (I'm a jam girl and Jim is the JimiJamm king when it comes to making blueberry jam). It would be fun to be a very small not-to-scale me in your mum's kitchen to watch both of you during marmalade production.
It was such a gorgeous series, Mary - the music was superb, and Michael Hordern had just the perfect voice for the job. I always thought it was so clever that Paddington was 'real' and the backgrounds and other characters were all paper and ink.
I love that you've called your Jim the 'JimiJamm king' - that's brilliant! We don't really grow blueberries over here, but I do like them. The soft-fruit pick-your-own farms in the summer when I was little would have strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries.
My first draft of this post had been about marmalade, pickle and jam - but it has grown so long that I had to rein it in to being only about marmalade! Watch out for a jam post in the summer! 🤣
You'd be welcome as a fly-on-the wall any time, Mary - but if you come as full-size Mary you could help me with that giant stirring spoon!
Love your marmalade collage, Rebecca! And, the rest of your artwork. I've also never seen how it is made so thank you for sharing the process. Beautiful and heartwarming story with your parents. Now I want some marmalade for breakfast.
Oh thank you, Stella - that means such a lot coming from you - you're the collage queen of my Substack inbox! I'm glad I got your taste buds seeking out some marmalade for breakfast - you know it makes sense! 🍊
Marmalade! And Paddington! And HM! Perfect post.
I LOVE marmalade on my toast in the morning and despite that I'm trying so hard to have porridge with greek yoghurt and fruit for its sustained high energy, I crave marmalade. Maybe I can put a spoonful on top of the Greek yoghurt.
My grandson is a marmalade sandwich kid and asked me to make marmalade icecream which I think would be rather beautiful and I must do it before the weekend.
My mum was just like your mum (how lucky you are to still have her) and would make annual marmalade along with lots of other things like sauce, chutney and jams. I tried but mine was really runny, despite re-boiling it and adding a thing called Jamsetta. I too love the lime marmalade but my favourite is Baxters. But the jars aren't big enough!!!
Your artwork is super - especially as a collage. Love collage and if they have text woven through, I'm even happier.
Off to make a marmalade sandwich, so thank you!
Marmalade DEFINITELY counts as 'fruit', Prue - I reckon you're onto a winner! I love that your grandson is channelling his inner Paddington - and wow, marmalade ice cream sounds amazing! I made chocolate orange marmalade pots at the weekend - oh my goodness, marmalade as an ingredient is fabulous. I often make marmalade cake, too, but usually using lime or lemon marmalade rather than Seville orange.
Mum always soaks the orange pips in the juice overnight, and it's that process that makes the marmalade set - or so I understand it. For jams, though, she uses pectin (which I guess is what Jamsetta is - over here we have a brand called Certo) which she buys in bottles. These days you can get 'jam sugar', which has pectin in it, somehow, but I don't think she ever uses that.
Thank you for your collage compliment! I love using newspaper in my art, and it's fun to see the words coming through. 😊