Marmalade may not be everyone’s breakfast of choice, but for purists Seville orange marmalade is considered the best of them all according to Penola marmalade competition entrant Cathy Hughes.

“The trouble is that local cook’s seeking to make their jars of marmalade are having trouble finding supplies of Seville oranges in South Australia and have been for a couple of years,” Ms Hughes said.

“Seville oranges are hard to come by since they have a bitter taste and most people like to eat sweet oranges.

“They also have a very short growing season and are only available from late July to August in Australia.”

The last time Ms Hughes was able to source commercially grown fruit within South Australia was in 2021, but the combination of COVID impacts and fruit fly outbreaks in the Riverland and Adelaide regions meant that specialist citrus growers found it problematic to remain viable.

“This year I have been in contact with several local fruiterers again, plus two specialist Adelaide wholesalers, but with no success”, Ms Hughes said.

One wholesaler told her she was about the 25th person who had made a similar enquiry this month.

While there are plenty supplies of other citrus fruits like naval oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit and mandarins that make perfectly good marmalades, Ms Hughes said freshly picked Seville oranges were highly sought after because they were loaded with pectin.

“The pith, peel and seeds are rich in pectin which is the naturally occurring agent in fruits that help thicken marmalades and other cooked jam and jelly preserves.

“Fruits that are rich in pectin do not require as long to cook, which that means the colour and flavour of the final preserve are going to be far better,” she said.

Ms Hughes is a keen preserver of home grown and seasonal produce and it was her love of quinces that led her to try making marmalades as she has an orchard of nearly 100 trees on the family farm.

While she has ordered a Seville orange tree to plant in the garden, Ms Hughes said she and another keen marmalade maker from Glencoe would like to track down some local home-grown Seville oranges.

“I would like to enter this year’s Seville Orange marmalade awards, but I do have other marmalades I am going to submit.”

If anyone has any good quality Seville oranges to share, please contact Ms Hughes at magic@quincehq.com.au or phone 0428 720 728.