Lemon Marmalade...part one

When my Brother in Law Jim gives me lemons...I make marmalade. This time, he gave use a ton! Two gorgeous lemon trees gave their all for this picture...and this was about half of the lemons in my house. The rest are going to lemon bars and all kinds of good junk.
We washed and scrubbed them with a little dish soap and rinsed well. For home canning, this is a big important step.

Kiddos helping, needed to wash and sterilize their hands as well. I didn't see much complaining...at first.

Little Man loved zesting lemons...

I use the peeler first (well Little Man used the peeler first)...

Then we sliced the zest in thin strips and put in a separate bowl...

There was still a lot left to do...and the kids where getting a little tired. We only ended up using about half.

Once the zest was peeled and sliced, we cut the lemons in half and squeezed the juice out.
1/4 of the lemons I reserved for cutting and slicing the flesh (of the lemons...for the record I don't cut a lot of flesh...I'm crazy, but not psycho!)

What a great worker Little Man has been! He's close enough to smooch right here...

While He juiced, I sliced the white part off and then sliced the fruit in fine slices.

Combine all the zest, juice, and fruit flesh in a large 1 gallon pot. Soooo pretty!

Boil 10 minutes and then allow to sit uncovered 8-10 hours. We'll finish up tomorrow.

I usually have a lot of answers...but I don't really know why we have to wait overnight after boiling. I just know that I have done marmalade without doing this step and I had to throw away the whole batch because it tasted so bitter and nasty. That was a hard lesson...and one I don't intend to repeat after doing all that work! Oh...and I may have added a few additional spiced in there. Cardamon, lavender, rose petal, juniper and allspice to name a few. Fancy stuff but very subtle and so lovely in the jam.