M-Day

M-Day is a moveable feast.  

It doesn’t cling to any religious or astronomical cycle, it just depends on when I can get hold of a big bag of (preferably organic) Seville oranges to make my annual supply of marmalade.

M-Day, traditionally celebrated on a Sunday, has been as early as 13th January and as late as 18th February over recent years.   This year M-Day is relative early (22nd January).

Each year (and we have records going back to 1993) the marmalade gets a name.

1993 Frostie’s Valentine’s Day Marmalade

1995 Flying Toaster Marmalade

1997 Seaforth Marmalade

1999 Stile Road No. 1

2000 Ross’s Organic Seville Marmalade

2001 Real Millennium Marmalade

2002 Candlemas Marmalade

2003 Crystal Marmalade

2004 Poacher’s (Pocket) Marmalade

2005 St Clement’s Marmalade

2006 Quandary Marmalade

2008 China Marmalade

2009 Stile Road No. 10

2010 Stile Associates Corporate

2011 St Ninian’s Marmalade

2012 Aurora Marmalade

2013 St Scholastica’s Marmalade

2014 Remote Marmalade

2015 Mountain Marmalade

2016 Scatness Seville Marmalade
2017 Pomerans Marmelade
2018 Moon Dog Marmalade
2019 The Black Douglas
2020 Burns Night Marmalade

(list updated in January 2020)

And this year, I bring you Pomerans Marmelade - feels appropriate, this year, to give a European nod to the Danish cousins.

And just in case you feel the urge to celebrate your own M-Day - my (very simple) recipe requires 3 kg of organic Seville oranges, 3 or 4 lemons, 6 kg of sugar and 3 litres of water.  For that lot you’ll need a muslin bag, a pan that holds about 12 litres to boil the marmalade up in and 25-30 jars to put it in later on.

• Step 1 (on M-Day Eve) chop up the fruit and put the pips into a muslin bag.  Leave chopped fruit and water (and bag of pips) to stand overnight.
• Step 2 (on M-Day) gently boil fruit, water and pips for 2 hours.
• Step 3 Remove pip bag, add sugar then boil rapidly for another 2 hours.
• Step 4 Let it cool a bit then pour into the jars.
• Step 5 (Daily for rest of year) Put marmalade onto hot buttered toast.