SWEET VICTORY
Dr John Stonier took his pride and joy all the way to England for a weekend in the country
The British seem to specialise in unusual traditional events around food. The cheese-rolling in Gloucestershire, for instance, goes back centuries. They also have an annual Marmalade Festival at Dalemain Mansion, near Penrith in the Lake District.
In July 2012, I made a batch of lemon marmalade at my home in Stilbaai that surpassed all the marmalades I’d made for upwards of 30 years. A week later, I read about the Marmalade Festival in Food Weekly and decided to enter my latest and best version in the next competition. I found the organisers on the internet and they seemed delighted at the prospect of an entry from South Africa.
Now, how to get two bottles of marmalade intact over the sea to England? Obviously the safest way was to take them myself. This set in motion my plan to go to England in February this year and include a visit to my two sons.
The competition has two categories: one for commercial marmalade and one for home-made. The home-made category attracted about 1 800 entries this year, mostly from the UK but also from Europe, Australia, Canada and two from South Africa — mine and one from a team of bridge players in Bedford, Eastern Cape.
On March 2 and 3, the home-made marmalades, further divided into 11 subsections, were set out in the beautiful rooms of Dalemain Mansion. For me, this was the culmination of eight months of planning and it was an immense thrill arriving there via narrow roads on a very cold but clear sunny day.
The marmalades were evaluated by judges from the Women’s Institute in Carlisle. Every entry was given a score out of 20 for colour, texture and quality, flavour and aroma. A Marmalade Awards Certificate was then posted to those whose scores had reached gold, silver, bronze and merit categories.
Not put off by the disbelief of friends and acquaintances that an octogenarian had seen fit to embark on such an unusual expedition, I was delighted that it turned out to be a most memorable visit. My sons and I were part of something unique in such a beautiful part of the UK. For me, the cherry on top was bringing home a Silver Award Certificate for my lemon marmalade in the Home-made International category.
Visit www.marmaladeawards.com.