The Mighty Marula Tree: Part Two – Making Marula Jam with Dorns

Following on from my final weblog, the place I described the fantastic marula and its fruits, I could not cease excited about how superb this fruit really is, and what number of totally different makes use of it has. These ideas introduced me again to a fond reminiscence throughout my mentoring coaching, the place a bunch of us have been assigned to gather buckets of marula fruits to be used in Londolozi’s kitchen, to make marula jam for camps. After chatting with Dorence we determined to make some for ourselves. Dorrence grew up making marula jam and was keen to show me the way it’s executed, and I could not wait to study from him.

This is how my good pal and tracker, Dorence, makes this scrumptious Marula Jam.

1. Acquire the fruits

We set off into the bush to gather marula fruit. Marula timber are principally discovered on massive open tops, so this should not be tough in principle. Nonetheless, with elephants and some different animals who additionally love fruit, we needed to undergo numerous timber earlier than discovering one with sufficient fruit beneath. We determined {that a} five-liter bucket can be greater than sufficient fruit to fill two jars of jam, one for every of us.

Success, with the primary a part of the duty accomplished, the enjoyable now begins.

2. Wash the fruit

As soon as again at camp, we washed the fruit to rid it of extra dust and small bugs which may have been drawn to the fruit.

3. Reduce and boil the fruit

After washing the marula fruit, Dorence defined that earlier than boiling the fruit, we wanted to chop a number of crosses on the pores and skin of the fruit to maximise the extraction of juices from it. This isn’t an actual science but it surely was simply exposing a number of the pulp contained in the fruit for the flavour to seep via. Then we boiled the fruit for about two hours, lengthy sufficient to maximise the flavour earlier than cracking the pores and skin or the remainder of the fruit.

4. Pressure the boiling water

Then we filtered the fruits from the liquid. The fruits have served their objective at this level and are simply the liquid we’re searching for. So we discarded the fruits, leaving solely the cloudy yellow liquid within the pot.

5. Add the sugar and simmer for an additional two hours

Then we added three cups of sugar (for 3 cups of marula water). Bringing the range to a simmer, let the water simmer for an additional two hours, however Dorrence jogged my memory that maintaining a tally of the jam throughout this course of is essential for eliminating extra foam.

6. As soon as the liquid is a darkish golden shade, you are in enterprise!

Additional boiling ought to flip the liquid a wonderful wealthy darkish golden shade, and the consistency will slowly flip to a gel-like liquid. Then we poured the jam into our jars and left it in a single day.

7. Discover some bread and luxuriate in!

As soon as you have let your jam jars sit in a single day, seize a scrumptious ciabatta roll and luxuriate in your marula jam with your pals – Yum!

Making marula jam was such a enjoyable expertise. Dorns taught me a easy method to make some scrumptious jam that we are able to now share with our household and buddies, and studying from it’s one thing I’ll by no means get uninterested in.

The alternatives are infinite with the Marula fruit.