Comments (0) Best Old-Fashioned, All-Natural Orange Marmalade - 2010
E. Waldo Ward
273 E. Highland Ave.
Sierra Madre, CA 91024
626-355-1218
Edwin Waldo Ward Sr. was on a marmalade mission when he opened his namesake Sierra Madre canning and preserving company in 1917. The former New York-based luxury food salesman planted navel orange trees on his 30-acre property when he moved to California, and later imported Seville orange trees from Spain to make a tangier English-style marmalade. Nearly a century later, E. Waldo Ward's grandson, Richard, and his son Jeff, produce more than 100 products, including marmalades, jams and jellies, as well as relishes, fruit butters and stuffed olives. But the chunky, fruit-packed marmalades made the old fashioned, all-natural way without food coloring are the best finds here. The original Seville orange marmalade is still made according to Edwin's recipe, and there are some interesting variations introduced by later Ward generations, including a gingery Valencia orange, blood orange, and Tangelo marmalade. You can find the marmalades at many specialty grocery stores around town or buy them online. But for a real taste of marmalades past (gingham-check ribbons and all), it's worth the drive to Sierra Madre to sift through the wicker sampler baskets in the barn-turned-retail shop that Ward built on the family property in 1902. 273 Highland Ave., Sierra Madre. (626) 355-1218, waldoward.com. —Jenn Garbee
