WWOOFing in Italy: Making Preserves

Today (3 March 2011) I learned how to can marmalade!! It was a rainy day on the farm: what to do with the WWOOFer? Antonella didn’t know, so she decided to set me up to make jam! From the cartons of kiwi I picked out 8 kilos of the ripest. The hundreds of kilos that they (still!) have were the fruits of one tree, probably enough to feed a neighborhood. When it is cool they last for months out in the open, but making jam is the clear alternative for when they start to go bad. First I peeled them all, threw the contents into a giant pot (and of course saved the peels for the hens), and stirred constantly for an hour. When most of the excess water had boiled out, I added 3 kilos of sugar and continued to stir. Sugar can always be experimented with. Recipes call for 1 to 1; in this case we did 1 to .375. For figs, Donatella does only 1 to .2; it depends on the sweetness/sourness of food to be canned. Nonetheless, sugar is always “necessary” (I’m not convinced) as a preserving agent. It is best to boil out most of the water before adding the sugar. Why? As sugar caramelizes, it darkens and makes your marmalade less vibrant and fresh. Nonetheless, when you do add it, it will make the entire mix look more liquid again. Don’t be fooled! When it is cool it will thicken. Keep stirring, and intermittently spoon some onto a plate, let it cool, and check its consistency. When finished, turn off heat, continue stirring, and fill clean jars. Close lids tightly and turn jars on their heads: the contents (still about 100 C) will kill all bacteria, making a safe preserve that will last for months! You can find better instructions in any manual. I could have used a manual, too, instead of coming to the middle of the mountains in Italy, but this is the point of WWOOFing! No book learning compares to learning as an apprentice. These instructions are really just to whet your appetite.