โข PHOTO BY ME โข
One of my favorite meals is fresh fruit, a poached egg, sausages, and whole wheat toast. I eat this sometimes for breakfast or even as an evening meal! I usually opt for sausage made from turkey instead of beef or pork, because of the lower saturated fat content. It is wonderful when there are fresh figs to accompany this meal! I enjoy many different fruits, but figs are likely my very favorite of them all.
He dug a small sapling from under the mature tree of a family member and transported it. The sapling did not survive the cold winter. So, the next year, he covered the second tree, but it did not survive the cold of winter, either. Finally, he built a box out of scrap wood to cover the tree and keep the frost away. This finally worked and the tree survived! He covered it in a similar manner another winter or two until it was big-enough to survive on it own. The tree is now as tall as our house and produces a decent amount of figs each year which I share with the other widow-ladies in the neighborhood.
โข ONE FIG READY TO PICK TWO STILL RIPENING โข PHOTO BY ME โข
To pick the figs, one only need to look for the lovely brown color of the ripened ones. Gently hold the fig in your fingers and twistย โ if the stem easily separates from the branch of the tree, it is ready. If not, leave that fruit until the next day. Although figs ripen during the hottest part of the summer ("Dog Days"), it might be a good idea to wear long pants and/or long sleeves while picking the figs, as there are usually plenty of flies and gnats that love to bite folks who are picking "their" figs. ๐ฑ
Figs may be eaten raw, dried, or cooked. Figs are a good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin-C, Choline, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Potassium. They are a wonderful accompaniment to any meal, or even eaten alone as a snack. Besides being a favorite of some of us humans, figs are favored by many birds, squirrels, wasps, bees, flies, gnats, and ants. I usually pick the figs I can reach from ground-level and leave the higher fruit on the tree for the birds and other critters. I feel that it is only fair to share my bounty, plus I am getting too old to be monkeying-about on top of a ladder.
Figs do not last very long once they are ripe unless they are preserved in some way. Figs may be dried in a similar manner in which plums are dried to make prunes, and are often seen in stores in that form through the New Year holiday. Alternatively, they may be cooked and sealed in air-tight jars as Fig Preserves or Fig Jam, which is what my family did.
Before discussing how to make Fig Preserves/Jam, I wanted to mention a piece of tangential information for those who do not know:
- jelly is a translucent food made from only the juice of fruit
- jam is a more opaque food made from cut, crushed, or pulverized fruit along with the juice of the fruit
- preserves are made from the whole fruit, or large chunks of the fruit, along with the juice
Take any desired quantity of fresh figs and wash/rinse them. If you wish to make jam instead of preserves, cut the fruits into small pieces; for preserves, leave them whole, or cut them only in half. Place the fruit into a saucepan with a very small quantity of water (just enough to keep them from scorching until the figs begin to release their own juices). Turn the stove onto low heat and let them gently simmer for a bit, checking them periodically. After a little while, the figs will begin to cook down (i.e., soften and break into pieces) and release their juices just as apples do when making stewed apples or homemade applesauce.
This is the point at which you should add the sugar. Even though figs (and other foods made into jams/preserves) are often naturally sweet, the addition of sugar will help achieve the desired consistency. The quantity of sugar to add is largely a matter of taste, and a sugar substitute such as Splendaยฎ would probably work well, too, especially if the person eating it is diabetic. There is some natural pectin in the figs that will help them set properly, but the addition of a packet of fruit pectin might be good, especially if you wish to use a smaller amount of sugar. (My family always added tons of sugar, so pectin was never necessary... ๐)
Note that PickYourOwn.org cautions that too little sugar will possibly cause the fruit to ferment, resulting in spoiled/unedible jam/preserves. Since I seldom follow recipes to the letter, the amount of sugar I add varies each time, but I would estimate that I use one cup or one-and-a-half cups for each pound of fruit I have. I usually add a cup of sugar, stir thoroughly to blend it, take a teensy taste, and then decide whether to add more or not.This is also the point at which to add the pectin, if you're opting for that.
Lastly, add a bit of lemon juice. This will act as a natural preservative as well as give a more rounded taste to the final product. Again, I do not measure, but just add a "splash" of lemon juice, perhaps a tablespoon, straight from the bottle to the saucepan. Stir thoroughly to incorporate.
Unless the fig jam/preserves will be consumed within the coming days, it can be "canned"ย โ sealed in sterilized, air-tight jarsย โ and given as gifts or stored in a cool, dark cupboard for a year or two until consumed. But trust me, that these are so good they won't be around long! ๐ Jars of homemade jam/preserves make excellent gifts, especially if decorative jars are used. I learned the canning process from family, but good information can be found online, too, on sites such as PickYourOwn.org and others.
ย ๐SOURCES
ย ย ย 1 FloraFinder.org: Ficus carica
ย ย ย 2 PickYourOwn.org: Fig Preserves/Fig Jam
ย ย ย 3 Virginia Tech Department of Dendrology: Ficus carica
ย ย ย 4 Wikipedia: Ficus carica
a big hug is due to @enginewitty for designing the following personal banner for me ๐ค
Such a delicious looking dish @thekitteygirl. Thanks for sharing :)
Well now i'm hungry. why do i go to PYPT when i'm hungry?!?!?!? LOL
i have never tried fresh figs! i'll have to look for them! :)
Nice
I liked reading your content, it has been very pleasant and interesting! regards
I love figs
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I tried figs once and didn't like them that much, but maybe my tastes have changed now and I would
Only introduction I ever had to figs was "Fig Newtons"...more recently while on a kayak trip a fellow kayaker introduced me to figs and dates...now I am hooked!
Its called Anjir in Hindi. It has loads of benefits ....though rarely found in india and costly too
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I don't think I have ever tried fresh figs
But now it's on my to do list - Must try fresh figs ๐
I have many fond memories of eating figs fresh from the tree. The map you included has given me hope that perhaps I can grow a fig tree here in Ohio. Winters are pretty harsh in Cleveland, but maybe if I build a shed for it like your dad did I could get it to survive.
howdy from Texas mattifer! I saw that you are from Cleveland, we lived in Akron for many years and just moved to Texas a few years ago, my wife wanted to get away from the cold so we headed South. Good to know someone from our old neighborhood is here!
Yep, but I won't be in Ohio for many more years. I think I can only handle about 2 more winters here. I moved up from Arkansas myself. My first experience with a fig tree was there. ๐
oh yes...well I can so understand about the winters because as bad as they were in Akron we were always shocked at how much worse they were in Cleveland with the lake effect snow and all that, crazy! and crazy cold!
Yes, lake effect snow is insane. I grew up near Lake Michigan so experienced that lake effect snow, but it's even worse in Cleveland, Ohio.
yeah we used to avoid going to Cleveland like the plague! especially in the winter time my God what a mess! lol
I'm planning to spend as much of the winter NOT in Cleveland as possible.
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So much awesome information, @thekittygirl! I had no idea that fig trees could grow as far north as Massachusetts (where I grew up), and I love how hard your dad worked to make sure your mom had her tree. I've always wanted to try canning/preserving, and you make it sound so easy! Thanks for sharing all the wicked awesomesauceness, and congrats on the very well-deserved #steemitbloggers member boost!
via GIPHY
(couldn't resist the dancing fig...lol)
I grew up with figs and as a child we had a fig tree in the back yard I would often eat figs right off the tree. Yummy!
I too love figs, but the story behind yours makes them all the more special!! So sweet ... this post and of course figs :) My mother mustn't have liked them because I never had them growing up, but as a young adult, I had an Italian friend and her parents had all kinds of fruit trees, figs being one of them. That's where I fell in love with figs :)
howdy there thekittygirl! hey I just met you today in the Castle so I wanted to stop by and say hi. Figs are so wonderful and I heard that they thrive in Texas so we are looking into that. Great post by theway!
Did you know Augustus was killed by a poisoned fig?
You shouldn't because it's probably not true but I, Claudius is really good anyway.
We seldom have figs here and rarely eat but reading this makes me wanna try. So much details here. Thank you for sharing. :)
You are so lucky to have a fig tree! I love them too but they tend to be expensive to buy fresh ones but when I do I savor every bite! I may have to try making preserves the next time I buy a small case of them. YUM!!
I'm sorry I missed the voting on this one. I have never had a fresh fig. I love the dried ones, so I can just imagine how delicious a fresh one would be.
Your father sounds like someone I would have really liked.