Make your marmalade now!

As mentioned in my tweet, I went on the hunt in Crouch End, to see if the four supermarkets and two fruit and veg shops there would stock Seville oranges. These lovely knobbly, bitter fruit are only available in January and February and are the perfect fruit for marmalade.

The results: the Broadway Fruiterers and the Clocktower Store came up trumps but none of the supermarkets stocked this most seasonal of fruits.  For sure, had I wanted clementines, naval oranges, jaffa oranges, blood oranges, organic oranges, and tangerines (to try), the supermarkets would have met my needs.  They offered half-price, two bags for the price of one bargains and seedless varieties.  Waitrose even apologised for selling lemons with pips. But you see I wanted pips because that's what makes my marmalade set!

So what is the moral of this little story?  It is the myth that supermarkets offer choice.  There may be a range but if it is a niche product you are after, the local fruit and veg shop is best.  If we lose our local shops, where will we go for our seasonal fruit?

Here's a recipe for marmalade, published this Saturday in the Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/29/seville-orange-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall

And here’s a link to Dave Cohen’s poem published in the Hornsey Journal, lamenting the demise of local shops.  http://www.hornseyjournal.co.uk/news/comic_poem_highlights_death_of_crouch_end_1_773776