Preserving English eccentricity: 20 years of the World Marmalade Awards | Meals

[ad_1] What may unite octogenarian Cumbrian farmers, diplomats from Japan, Spain and Australia, and Paddington Bear?

The reply, after all, is marmalade. Or, extra particularly, the World Marmalade Awards.

With a flock of spray-painted orange sheep, a large purple squirrel and Paddington wandering among the many marmalade aficionados (a lot of whom are additionally wearing orange), and a choir of schoolchildren performing a specifically commissioned marmalade track, the occasion held at Dalemain Mansion close to Penrith is one thing of a showcase of English eccentricity.

The occasion’s founder, Jane Hasell-McCosh, arrange the awards in 2005, “primarily as a result of we’d had foot and mouth and the entire county had actually suffered from it”, she mentioned, and likewise as a result of “I like marmalade and I used to be making an attempt to consider a method of getting individuals to return to Cumbria”.

Jane Hasell-McCosh, the founding father of the awards, was making an attempt to consider a solution to get individuals to return to Cumbria. {Photograph}: Mark Pinder/The Guardian It started as a neighborhood competitors, with Hasell-McCosh, who lives in Dalemain, convincing individuals handy over jars of their marmalade. The following 12 months, she says, “we thought, effectively, perhaps we should always strive a pageant. Someone who was concerned in tourism mentioned: ‘Effectively, that’s a really foolish thought, it can by no means work.’”

Hasell-McCosh mentioned she initially “gave it 5 years”, however twenty years on, the awards have drawn in additional than 3,200 entries from as far afield as Portugal, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and South Korea. Among the many entrants have been a Taiwanese Orphanage, the British embassy in Jordan and the director of a London Museum.

This 12 months’s preserves have been flavoured with every little thing from Scotland’s well-known Irn-Bru, to Belgian blue beer, to Taiwanese orchids, however the general victor was Hitomi Wakamura from Tokyo, along with her yuzu and pear marmalade.

Hitomi Wakamura along with her yuzu and pear marmalade. {Photograph}: Mark Pinder/The Guardian It's the first time within the competitors’s 20-year historical past that an abroad winner has been topped the general champion.

Wakamura flew 14 hours to London, then took a three-hour practice to Penrith to gather her winner’s cup from Chris Bishop, previous grasp of the Worshipful Firm of Fruiterers, within the presence of Masaki Ikegami, the deputy chief of mission for the Japanese embassy.

Masaki Ikegami, the deputy chief of mission for the Japanese embassy, and Elisabeth Bowes, Australian deputy excessive commissioner, on the awards. {Photograph}: Mark Pinder/The Guardian The Australian deputy excessive commissioner to the UK, Elisabeth Bowes, had additionally travelled to Cumbria for the occasion, with José Robles, the Spanish minister-counsellor for cultural and scientific affairs, attributable to make an look later.

Wakamura’s marmalade, which received within the “any citrus excluding Seville” class, might be stocked within the London division retailer Fortnum & Mason, elevating cash for the charity Hospice at Dwelling.

Marmalades within the ‘any citrus excluding Seville’ class. {Photograph}: Mark Pinder/The Guardian “I’m extraordinarily comfortable to be right here,” Wakamura mentioned. “I’m so honoured to have the ability to obtain this.” Tomorrow, she mentioned, she is going to go to see her marmalade on the market in Fortnum & Mason, however, she added, “that is the principle occasion”.

Different classes embody “savoury marmalade”, “fascinating additions”, and “jail marmalade” – this 12 months received by prisoners from HMP Styal in Cheshire, with a Seville and black treacle marmalade.

Entrants to the competitors are overwhelmingly feminine, however within the “artificial” class, the winner was 72-year-old baker Simon Bowden, who shipped his entry of Amalfi lemon and Seville orange marmalade from New York, the place he lives.

Guests pattern the marmalades. {Photograph}: Mark Pinder/The Guardian “I’m completely astonished, truly, however thrilled on the identical time,” he mentioned. “I flew simply final evening to return right here.”

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“The British are fairly eccentric in some methods anyway,” Bowden, who's initially from Sussex, mentioned, “however that is the cream on high of the cake, loopy individuals who make marmalade, I like it.”

Karen Jankel, the daughter of the Paddington writer Michael Bond, offered a prize to the kids’s marmalade winner, 12-year-old Liberty Brooks, who was sporting a brilliant orange costume.

“It’s orange and bay marmalade,” Brooks mentioned, “I grew the bay myself.”

“Final 12 months I added jalapeno to the marmalade, so I wished to do one thing a bit extra fascinating than only a plain marmalade,” she added. “I used to be curious about stuff I may use domestically, as a result of I’m curious about foraging, so I used the bay.”

“I’m very comfortable,” she mentioned. “I wasn’t anticipating it as a result of personally, I choose the one I did final 12 months.”

Susan Aglionby, an 80-year-old farmer, whose ancestors have lived in Cumbria for nearly 900 years, received within the “native flavours” class. She used honey from bees on the farm and herbs grown in her backyard.

Susan Aglionby, winner within the ‘native flavours’ class. {Photograph}: Mark Pinder “I’ve entered proper from the start, as a result of I simply thought it was such a superb thought to deliver individuals to Cumbria, to deliver them to Dalemain, and it’s such a stunning place,” she mentioned. “I’ve bought bronze and silvers earlier than, however I’ve by no means bought a gold, so it’s actually thrilling.”

With the judging going down over only a matter of weeks, the panel of about 60 judges can find yourself tasting dozens of jars of marmalade in a day to search out the winners.