Northumberland woman's wartime-recipe marmalade wins prestigious award

Lynne Allan, who makes artisan marmalade under her Lady Waterford label at the Old Dairy in Ford, was inspired by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations to produce a marmalade under wartime conditions when extreme rationing meant sugar was in very short supply and oranges were difficult to acquire. Hence she called it Wartime Marmalade.

Many other sweets were also rationed for a short time as the war went on as food supplies became scarcer and Nazi attacks on food supply chains meant Britain had to learn to become self sufficient.

Lynne said: “Carrots were often used during the war to add sweetness to cakes and biscuits so I thought why not try them in marmalade. It meant I could cut down on sugar and the orange colour of carrots is a perfect combination with oranges.

“Even so it was quite a surprise to win Gold with such a humble and experimental marmalade, particularly when you are competing against the best marmalade makers in the world. But, thankfully, it really does taste amazingly good.”

The competition attracts more than 3,000 entries each year and is seen as a prestigious award in the marmalade industry.

The marmalade awards take place every year at Dalemain, a country mansion near Penrith in Cumbria, and are sponsored by Fortnum & Mason. It’s been running since 2012 and is open to amateurs and artisan makers of marmalade with entries flooding in from almost every country.