Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A New Recipe

We were fortunate to have an established fig tree on our property when we bought our place a few years ago. Monroe also transplanted a few small trees that he got from his parents' house right after we moved in. The picture below are the trees he started and as you can see, they are doing great. We have a total of 6 trees and this year they are all producing figs! I am not sure what variety they are but they don't get very big and they are oh so sweet and delicious! Because the fruit is not big the seeds are very small which is a good thing for my kids. They like to munch on them while they are out playing in the backyard. They like to pretend they are the guy from the tv show, Survivor Man. You know, live off of the land kind of thing. I like it cause it keeps them outdoors for a long stretch of time ;-)


This is a bowl of fresh picked figs. I have learned that the amount of rainfall has to be just right in order to get edible figs. If it rains too much they get swollen and burst at the bottom. The fruit is so tender and soft it can't take too much water. Then the bugs like to get in through the hole in the bottom of the fig. A lesson Kay and I will never forget....right Kay??? That is a funny story I will have to share sometime, tee-hee-hee!
Well, I had to come up with some way to use up these figs. I decided to try a fresh fig cake. It turned out to be a not so pretty cake but that is okay because it was so moist and delicious. This is definitely a recipe I will use again.
I will be making preserves with some of the harvest. However, it will be a while yet as we have been blessed with lots of rain lately and the fruit is rotting on the tree right now. I thought about going out and shaking the tree to get the bad fruit to fall off. I can see lots of green figs that will be ready soon. Hopefully, it won't be too rainy when they are ready to pick. After all, my" survivor men" need something to keep them going!!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

yummy!! for the strangest reason, nothing in my yard as to fruit and veg have bloomed. no figs, no grapes, no tomatoes. roger says because the bees are not here. the farmers did use "extra" fertilizer this year, ha! but yeah, be very CAREFUL with figs that are split, excuse me, i have to go find a bathroom or balcony or someplace to hang my head, haha