Kumquat May

Wist and I went along and saw Ethan Johns in concert last night.
It finished late, but I thought I’d quickly slip in a food challenge nonetheless.
Well, to be honest, it was a premeditated food challenge… weeks in the
planning.

You see, in early January I bought a pack of Kumquats from Sainsbury. A
large pack, for just shy of £1 sterling.

I popped them in the fridge.

And forgot about them.

They went off.

No matter I thought, I’ll just pick up another pack from Sainsburys next
time I’m there.

Alas, the next time I was there they were out of stock. 

And the next week.

Tesco weren’t stocking them for some reason, and neither were Waitrose.

A cold sweat gripped me as I pulled out my phone and scanned a blog about
kumquats.

‘Generally available between November and January.’

Ah.

Oh.

I’ve missed the season.

So no kumquat until November 2013, but the challenge finishes in June…

I was beaten.

Then one bright, breezy February day, Wist suggests we take a stroll to
Fortnum and Mason as they have Kumquat marmalade.

(Surely THAT would count, I figured.)

But marmalade didn’t need to count – Kumquat’s were still on sale in Fortnums!

Sure they were £14 to the kg, but they were fresh and in the country nonetheless.

We bought three whole kumquats.

It cost just shy of a £1 sterling.

And candied them as a post gig snack.

They were pretty bitter – certainly needed the extra sugar I think. 

And I wouldn’t choose to have them again.

But nice to have tried something new in the citrus family.