Beautiful orange orbs of colour and flavour – cumquats, a generous 3 kilos given to me by a lovely friend yesterday.

Already in the making are cumquat marmalade, cordial syrup and confit cumquats.

Cumquat preserves are now completed completed.

There’s cumquat cordial syrup, preserved (confit) cumquats and a little marmalade.

As an afterthought the cumquat pulp strained off from the cordial syrup – too good to waste so bottled that off as well. I’ll find a use for it, in fruit cakes for instance.

Finally, here is the recipe for Confit Cumquats:

CONFIT CUMQUATS

I have found that the shelf life of the Confit cumquats is quite short, so I now take a further step and preserve the finished product in my Fowlers Vacola.

The times and temperatures given in their latest information (on the Fowlers Vacola Users Facebook page) gives a guide to sspecific instructions for preserving fruits that relate to the type of preserver you have.

500g cumquats

650g sugar

250ml water

Method

1. Prick the cumquats and gently simmer in boiling water for 15 minutes. Drain.

2. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring. Add cumquats and cook for 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the syrup. Spoon into jars, covering with the syrup, and seal.

3. To lengthen shelf life, preserve in a Fowlers Vacola or similar (see introductory notes)