fig

Bountiful fig harvests mean it’s fig jam time

Over the last week, 3 of my friends and neighbors have shared figs from their drooping, fig-laden trees with us.

We had 2 or 3 different varieties of figs.  The ones in the middle, came from my mail carrier.  We talk plants periodically when I’m outside and he’s actually hopped out to take a peek at my vegetable garden. (Shhh – don’t tell anyone!) My figs aren’t ripe yet – they seem to be larger than the small ones and smaller than the large ones.  I know that mine is a Brown Turkey fig tree.  No idea what these were.

I believe the large purple ones are Black Genoa, Black Spanish or Purple Genca.  They were the sweetest figs.  The figs on the left were larger than those on the right (though it’s hard to tell from this pic) and came early, soI think they are Celeste.  Those are just guesses. Who knows what the really are.  There are more than 700 varieties of figs, some don’t fruit and some require two trees for pollination.  All these figs came from single trees. That’s all I know for sure!

The first figs went into a delicious salad of field greens, walnuts, peppadew picante goat cheese, and proscuitto.  I made a balsamic reduction with balsamic vinegar, honey, spicy Asian plum sauce and poured it warm over the salad.  It was amazing.

We ate fresh figs everyday throughout the first days we had the figs and then Jeff made refrigerator fig jam.Chop, chop, chop. (It takes a lot of figs to make jam).

Then comes the sugar.  These figs were all so sweet, we agreed that the next time we’d use less sugar, and might add some balsamic vinegar to bring out the natural sweetness of the fruit.

The house smelled great as they were bubbling in the pot.  Mother Nature’s air freshener!

He didn’t can them, though he sometimes goes that extra step.  This refrigerator recipe will keep for up to 3 months in the fridge. I can tell you they won’t last that long in our refrigerator.

After scooping them into the jars we shared some of them and bought some English muffins.  You know what happened next.

A wonderful, fresh home garden treat, we’ll be enjoying the jam this winter as well.

There are hundreds of other recipes for fresh figs or fig jam, chutney, sauce, etc.  I’m already thinking of pairing the fig jam with pork chops, among other things.

If you don’t have a fig tree in your yard, trust me — you’re missing out.

Fruit trees in the garden bearing fruit after recent rains…

A tour through the garden this week, after several significant recent rains, has me smiling.  Several of our trees are bearing fruit, thanks to a change of seasons and the end the our drought status.

The Texas ever-bearing fig tree we planted this spring is perking up after the summer and producing a second crop of fruit.  I can’t wait to taste them, as those from the spring were stressed by the transplant and heat.

It’s a lovely little tree, but I have had to put up a fence to keep Dakota, the fruit-vegetable-bulb-grub-eating dog away from it.

The pineapple guava is getting to be quite large for its spot and when it’s done fruiting, I will do some more pruning on it.  I’d like it to be a little less multi-trunked so we can see the structural nature of the tree.

Dakota had eaten some of the guavas, but there are going to be enough for us as I’m keeping a closer eye on her!

The pomegranate tree is absolutely full of fruit.  The birds and squirrels often get into these, and I usually leave some on the tree to split open and give them a treat.  I’m going to try some different ways for us to enjoy the arils this year.  They’re so good for you — their health benefits include helping to fight heart disease, blood pressure, high cholesterol. They have also been shown to help inhibit breast, prostate and colon cancer. We have many more than we could possibly eat, so I’ll be sharing.  If you’re in Austin, let me know if you’d like to come get some — they’re not quite ready yet, but it won’t be long now.  Just post a comment if you’re interested in coming to get some.
There is no fruit on the loquat, but it’s blooming all over, so that’s a promising sign for future production.  Except that this fruit tree sits next to the Pom, so the squirrels usually have a field day with the loquats because they are much less work to eat.  I’ll have to be the early bird to get this fruit.
What’s fruiting in your garden?
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