I felt guilty looking at all this fruit burdening my little kumquat tree so rather than sit and watch it rot or feed the birds (who don't seem to be interested in them anyway), I purposed myself to make some kumquat marmalade.

I'm a little impartial to marmalade at the best of times so adding some extra flavours that I really enjoy seemed the next logical step. The lemons still aren't quite ready so I had to rule them out. And, my family isn't keen on ginger so I had to limit my tastebuds a little but I did find a few ripe limes and even some stalks of lemongrass.

Fortunately, my kumquat tree had only yielded 2kg of fruit because it still took my daughter and I an hour to slice and remove the pips. Then it was onto the stove to cook it all up.

We had been saving glass jars over the past couple weeks in preparation for this little project but we were still short and had to make do with some Tupperware containers instead of pouring it down the sink.

For those who also have kumquat trees, or in fact any citrus fruit, that are ready for harvesting you might like the recipe that we used so I thought I would include it below;

Kumquat Marmalade Recipe

You cook up the Kumquats, Limes and Lemongrass with the water for about an hour or so until the peels become soft. Then add the sugar that's been warmed in a low oven for about 10 mins with the Jamsetta and boil for a further 10 mins. Then pour into sterilised jars and cover.

Pretty simple recipe really. I would rather have done it without the added pectin and just used the seeds but I'm not sure how to do that so I will further investigate and update this post when I come up with an answer.

I can't wait to try it on toast for breakfast this morning...Yum!