I can't find the marmalade!

I have some untypical tastes which is actually something of a family trait. For example my mother was a fan of Prince, jazz and various kinds of World music. She also ate butter. Not just on toast but with a fork. Family members tend to be very individual with different predilections. One of mine is lime marmalade.

Many years ago I had some Dundee Lime Marmalade and loved it. I have been eating lime marmalade ever since when I could get it. Lately I can’t get it at all. Apparently the only company still making it is Roses in England, but it is almost impossible to find in the stores. One store nearby carries it but only carry the key lime version not the regular lime. There used to be several English companies that made lime marmalade like Dundee, Robertson’s, Wilkin & Sons and a few others, but they all seem to have stopped making it or at least importing it to the U. S. A very few gourmet companies produce lime marmalade at ridiculous prices and someone told me of a place in Galena that has it.

When it comes to lime marmalade I understand there isn’t a lot of call for it, but in light of what stores do carry I don’t understand why. Besides the obvious preserves like grape jelly there are some odd ones like gooseberry marmalade for instance. I had some once and it was like eating soap with sugar. Someone must like it though because it is available in most stores. Then there is jalapeno. It is readily available in most of the stores in the area. Are there really more people in the world who eat jalapeno marmalade than lime? If so I want their names because I really don’t believe it. There are some things I have found during my for lime like ginger, rhubarb, pineapple, bramble — I assume there are some kind of berries on bramble otherwise ouch — pomegranate, peach & lavender, quince, green tomato (?), carrot (??), coconut, onion, chipotle marmalade and something called yuzu marmalade. But not lime. There are all kinds of orange marmalades including Seville orange, thick cut orange, golden shred, shredless, oxford (Seville oranges) , vintage oxford, fine cut oxford, tawny orange, orange and tangerine, blood orange, dark navy orange, no peel orange, mandarin orange and orange combined with just about everything else except rhubarb.

So now I am searching for recipes for marmalade though this may end up like the search for good espresso or wine — you may have to be fanatical about your limes, what kind they are, where they come from, what the soil and climate are like, when they were picked, etc. Imagine a connoisseur sitting at a table full of limes saying: “And this is a 2009 Persian lime from the Chateau Linden personally picked for me by Monsieur Bob.” That won’t be me. Instead I will be the guy sitting next to him eating the lime marmalade.