Late Summer Treasures

In the last part of July and the early part of August, just as the mercury establishes its residence above the 100* mark and the natives make their retreat to the cool indoors, there is a spectacular annual event which takes place in our landscape. It is the much anticipated Ripening of the The Figs. Our Fig Tree is an enormous, old specimen; according to the original land owner, he planted it some 40+ years ago. It is a magnificent tangle of branches sprawling out over the driveway and throwing shade to our back gardens.

The virtue of this tree is that she requires nothing of us. The children climb and hide out in her limbs, build club houses in the shade of her boughs and use the early season "pre-figs" for slingshot ammunition. Yet, we neither water nor fertilize her. In fact, the adults ignore her entirely until the day she bears her voluptuous golden fruits, and then, for about three glorious weeks, she receives our daily attention.




Our tree seems to be a less common variety, producing a yellowish-green skin with a magnificent jewel like ruby red flesh. The fruits come forth just as all of the neighbor's purple-brown figs are fading away for the season. And the tree, perhaps because of its size or its proximity over a fault line, produces with tremendous generosity. This year the Professor and Firstborn harvested fifty pounds of figs.


Yes, 5-0, fif-ty pounds. So, what does one do with fifty pounds of what writer Marie Simmons calls "one of America's favorite fruits?" We dry it (in the sun, in the trunk of the van or in the oven) or we turn to Simmons' cookbook, Fig Heaven and the web for a wealth of sweet and savory recipes. Some of our favorites are: fig newtons, fig-strawberry sorbet (includes white wine), fig-lime sorbet, fig-peach crumble, fig smoothie, fresh fig colfouti, fig preserves. And, of course, just pick a plump fig from the tree and eat it fresh for the best treat of all.

In the past we bartered with our friend, Ann. She would pick figs from our tree to her heart's content and then bring us several jars of her preserves. This year, however, I finally decided to give canning a try with the assistance of another fig preserve connoisseur, Lauri. Together we filled a dozen jars with a sweet sugar and fig preserve.
The following week, I went at it alone, amending Lauri's recipe with the aromatic and flavorful whole cloves and thinly sliced lemons suggested in Ann's recipe. That day I put another nineteen cans into the larder.

As the remainder of this year's withering crop is eaten up by delighted birds or fed to our hens, we will look forward to enjoying the Fig Tree bounty in preserved bits throughout the winter.
We shall have Christmas jars of aromatic preserved figs for our friends and dried figs to put in our oatmeal and nutmeg muffins. The Professor would like to try his cook's hand at some Figgy Pudding this winter, if Firstborn can save us a few ounces of his favorite dried fruit snack.

Next year, God Willing, there will be another bountiful harvest of these late summer treaures. Another new recipe to tempt us and another palette wooed by the flavor of sweet, juicy figs.