Sunday brunch is incomplete without toast topped with marmalade and cheddar cheese and a strong cup of tea. When we moved to New Zealand I quickly fell in love with the citrus here and Sunday brunch has become one of my favourite meals of the week. This might sound crazy, but I put a ration of bacon on my toast, that is my marmalade and cheese toast. So good! The Meyer lemon is my favourite – it is a hybrid of a mandarin or orange and a lemon. Citrus has been grown in New Zealand since the mid 19th century. The first commercial orchards were planted in Northland, Auckland, and the Bay of Plenty. We visited a non- commercial orchard in Kumeu area where the trees were glowing with lemons, limes and grapefruit. If you’d like to preserve them, I’d suggest lemon curd and marmalade, see recipe for lemon curd here thanks to Claire Aldous.
