Notes: On our way back from Florida, we bought a travel pack (25 lbs or so) of citrus from the Cushman's store in West Palm Beach. We took home Honeybell's (a tangerine-grapefruit cross also known as Minneola), red navel oranges, tangerines and pink grapefruit. There is no problem bringing these back to Toronto. You just check the box at baggage, and they'll have it waiting in the oversize luggage area at Pearson on arrival. Incidentally, we could not find any pick-your-own citrus groves in the Palm Beach area. The closest ones were in Orlando, three hours away.
Using the standard orange marmalade recipe included with the pectin box, I made a red navel orange marmalade, using the suggested fruit. I found the easiest way to cut up the oranges was to cut the tops and bottoms off, cut the peel deeply from pole to pole, then use a sharp knife to take out each segment without the surrounding membrane. The pith was easy to scrape off with a spoon but it was a time-consuming process. Pomona's directions are pretty easy to follow, the only thing extra to do is to simmer the cut-up fruit and peel in a pot with water. I used the minimum amount of sugar, two cups.
After processing and resting for 24 hours, I found the room-temperature marmalade was quite soft. In the refrigerator, it firmed up a little bit. This is fine wtih me as I like my jam softer and less sweet than the store-bought versions. A very successful experiment, and one I'll probably repeat using all grapefruit.
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