Fresh Figs – home grown

When we moved to our current house, years ago, a friend who lived close by had a large fig tree. He gave us a small cutting from his tree and we planted it near the house. It has grown quite well, without any kind of fertilizer or chemical spray. It has been giving us a large amount of figs.



Lately, at the end of June, we get a small crop of very large figs, as large as pears as you can see below – while the rest of the figs on the tree are tiny and green and ripen in mid August.




There are many varieties of figs – ours is called Brown Turkey. Down the road a neighbor has the dark red variety and another neighbor has the small, very sweet, variety called Celeste. Below is a vintage postcard showing a basket of fruit with the dark red figs. This could be the Poona variety or the Italian variety called Black Ischia.



The genus of the fig is Ficus (latin) with about 850 species that include not only figs but also woody trees, shrubs, vines, etc. It is believed to be indigenous to eastern Asia and is thousands of years old. Remnants of figs have been found in excavation of sites dating from 5,000 B.C. Figs come from the Ficus Maraceae species. Another specie is the Opuntia Ficus Indica which is a sort of cactus with a fruit called prickly pear, and yet another specie is Ficus Religiosa . This is an Indian tree (also called Bodhi Tree) of great size and longevity. It is considered sacred by Buddhists and planted close to many temples as it is the tree under which Gautama is said to have received the heavenly light and became Buddha.

Le Bouddha, painted by Odilon Redon, French, Symbolist, 1840-1916 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris)

Growing up in France I ate many figs in summer, fresh and sometimes with goat cheese.

Figs and Cheese, painted by Grace Mehan de Vito, American, contemporary

Since our fig tree produced so much fruit I started to make fig jams. I usually make jam with figs only but also some fig jams I add other fruits - those I prefer to mix are mangos, peaches, or cherimoyas. The cherimoya is a tropical fruit native to the Andean highland valleys of Ecuador and Peru – it is very sweet with a sherbet like texture and mixes well with figs.


Making fig jam is not difficult and it does not take too long. Last summer I took pictures while making the jam so I could show the process on my blog. I wanted to especially show it to one of my blogging friends, Paty from Florianopolis in Brazil. She has a fig tree in her yard but has not made jam from it. Her two blogs are very pretty and interesting – please visit them (one is in Portuguese but she has a translation button on the side) - they are entitled: I Love Florianopolis and Morada de Venus. Here is the process I go through to make the jam. First gather the figs from the tree. It is nice if you have access to a tall person because the tree is quite high – in this case my husband is the gatherer.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them

As you can see above my Brown Turkey figs are in the small yellow bowl and the figs in the basket are from the Celeste variety. This past September was the 4th time this year I made my jam. I supplemented my figs with the Celeste from Lake Laura Farm down the road (see my post on Lake Laura here.) I gather all the tools I’ll need. The jars, a long wooden spoon, a sharp knife, a package of pectin, a measuring cup, a small plate with a teaspoon, a block of paraffin, a ladle, a jar funnel, clean towel, a pair of tongs and assorted pots.

We do not spray the figs against insects as we do not get any – just the birds like to eat the ripe fruits. For one recipe of fig jam you need:

5 cups of fruit, cut in little pieces (about 3 or 4 pounds of fruit)
½ cup of fresh lemon juice
1 box of pectin
1 tsp of butter
7 cups of sugar

This will yield about 8 or 9 ½ pint jars (1/2 pint = 8 oz which is 2 cups.) I use paraffin to seal the jam as I do not have a canner. I use extreme caution to have everything super clean and wash my hands often. Place the jars in a large pan with water to cover them and warm the water until it boils. Keep it boiling for 5 minutes, then turn the heat down but keep the jars very warm.



Measure the sugar in a large bowl, so it will be ready when the time comes. I place a small piece of wax paper on the counter top to keep the counter clean. Break a large piece of paraffin and place it in a can and then in a small saucepan with some water in the bottom, about 2 inches high. Keep the saucepan warm enough to keep the paraffin liquid and make sure there is always water in the bottom of the pan. (Remember that paraffin is flammable so don’t overheat it or let the pan dry!)



Press the lemon to obtain ½ cup of juice.



Gently wash the figs and cut the stems and the bottom of the figs, then chop the fruit in little pieces. Do not peel them unless a spot is discolored and peel that spot only.



Place the cut up figs (or mixture of fig and other fruits) in a large and heavy pot. Add butter (to avoid too much foaming) the lemon juice and the powdered pectin.



Place heat under the pot and turn the fig mixture with a wooden spoon until the mixture is very hot.


Turn heat to high and keep stirring the fig mix until it reaches a full boil. When it has reached a full boil which cannot be stopped by stirring, add the sugar.



Keep stirring constantly until the mixture comes back to a rolling boil then stir for 1 minute while it boils (have a watch or clock ready so you can time this.) After a minute turn off the heat on the stove and move the pot away. Let the mixture cool for about 4 minutes and stir with spoon once in a while. Skim a little bit of the foam off the top of the mixture with a small spoon and place on a plate. Keep stirring the fig mixture off and on.



While the mixture is cooling off a bit remove jars from the hot water with tongs so as not to burn your fingers and place upside down on a clean towel on the kitchen counter. Return the pot to the stove or counter if you have the space. Take a jar close to the pot and place the jar funnel on it. With a ladle fill the jar to within 1/2 inch of the top and keep filling jars this way until you have used all the fig mixture.



Wipe any spilled jam off the outsides of jars. Seal by pouring the melted paraffin wax on the jam. Make wax layer about 1/8 inch thick and do not move jars until paraffin has hardened. Wax should be touching all edges of jar and be even. If there are air bubbles in wax - prick them with toothpick to make better seal. I usually let the jars sit about 1 or 2 hours until I see the thin white film of paraffin and then I pour another 1/8 inch on the jar again making sure that the edges are well covered and sealed. Then I leave the jars to cool off overnight before I place tops on them. If a jar was half filled I keep that one to eat right away.



Some say that sealing with paraffin is not recommended because the wax may separate from the side of the jars allowing air to touch the jam and mold is possible. I have been making jam this way for about 20 years and never had a problem or been sick from my jam. Should a little bit of mold come on the top of the jar after a while I just wipe it off as it is just on the surface and does not hurt the content. But you can always use a canner. We like to eat our homemade jam on toasts or English muffin for breakfast with a bowl of café au lait (for my husband) or black coffee made with expresso beans for me. Store jam in refrigerator after opening.



Remember to label the jam with the year and store away. Place pretty labels on them when giving them as gifts. I do not keep the jams more than 2 or 3 years – usually they are gone by that time or given away. If not, I toss them out and replace them with fresh ones. This year I made 4 or 5 batches of fig jam, some spiced apricot jam, blueberry jam, strawberry and rhubarb jam until I cannot place anymore jars in my cupboards. We love fruit either fresh or in homemade jams.



This is not complicated and it tastes very good. Enjoy.

Frutos

Pêssegos, peras, laranjas,
morangos, cerejas, figos,
maçãs, melão, melancia,
ó música de meus sentidos,
pura delícia da língua;
deixai-me agora falar
do fruto que me fascina,
pelo sabor, pela cor,
pelo aroma das sílabas:
tangerina, tangerina.
-Eugénio de Andrade, Portuguese 1923-2005

English translation:

Fruit

Peaches, pears, oranges,
strawberries, cherries, figs,
apples, melon, honey dew,
oh, music of my senses,
pure pleasure of the tongue;
let me speak now
of fruit that fascinate,
with the flavour, with the hues,
with the fragrance of their syllables:
oh tangerine, oh tangerine.
Eugénio de Andrade, Portuguese 1923-2005

Still Life with Figs, painting by Luis Melendez, Spanish 1715-1780