Figs Are Ripe!! Time to Make Fig Syrup and Preserves!

[indaswamp]

I look forward to this every year, a Fourth of July tradition. A friend of my grandmother has a cutting from her tree that is 50 years old and every year it is absolutely LOADED with figs! It is planted in very fertile loam soil along the Mississippi River. I started a cutting from the tree last year and planted it in the ground this past February. It is growing like crazy, but it will be a while before it starts bearing fruit heavy.

The tree..It is about 12' tall and we pick the top with an 8' ladder...

The harvest from the first picking..5 gallons of figs.

I gave 1.5 gallons to my Uncle and put the rest in my 4 gallon turkey roaster to make fig preserves and fig syrup. Got 14 pint jars of fig preserves and 12 jars of fig syrup.

If anyone has Maple syrup and would like to do a trade, I'm up for it. We don't get maple syrup here, and figs are a warm weather fruit hard to grow up north. Very unique and delicious syrup!

 

[TNJAKE]

Nice haul. My in-laws in Mississippi have a monster fig tree. Mil makes some pretty good preserves

 

[Ringer]

Man it's good to see this. I love making fig preserves and roasted figs for dessert. Nothing like some fig and brown sugar preserves on a cathead biscuit.

 

[phatfoodz]

I've had figs with cheese before.

 

[Hijack73]

When I was about 7 years old (1980) we moved a new singlewide onto a lot that my great aunt owned in Bastrop. It had 2 fig trees that were planted by her husbands parents (and he was close to 70), so there is no telling how old they actually were then. I know the small house they'd lived in (which was still on the lot and full of antiques) was built in the 30's and they'd both been gone at least 20 years by 1980. They were massive.

I was raised by my great grandmother eating fig preserves made from those figs. To this day I've never had figs that good.
I remember eating them straight off of the tree and disturbing a wasp (probably a yellow jacket actually) that was greedy and did not want to share. He got me right on the bottom of my eyebrow.

They grow some here in SC - but not like in Louisiana.

Thanks for sharing this. It brought back a lot of memories.

 

[indaswamp]

Fig and Pecan pie
Fig syrup over homemade vanilla ice cream
Fig preserves on a hot biscuit in the morning sitting on the front porch with a hot cup of cajun coffee
Fig Syrup glazed St. Louis Cut Ribs
Fig Syrup (2:1) and buffalo wing sauce chicken wings -(OMG so good)!!

And my all time favorite.....and the reason I make the syrup every year....

Fig Syrup over hot crepes in the morning. Indescribably Good!!!!!!

 

[Sven Svensson]

Call me crazy but my favorite stone fired pizza is fresh fig, prosciutto, Gorgonzola, olive oil, and after it’s baked a little arugula on top. Whenever I see fresh figs, that’s where my brain goes.

 

[phatfoodz]

Fig and Pecan pie
Fig syrup over homemade vanilla ice cream
Fig preserves on a hot biscuit in the morning sitting on the front porch with a hot cup of cajun coffee
Fig Syrup glazed St. Louis Cut Ribs
Fig Syrup (2:1) and buffalo wing sauce chicken wings -(OMG so good)!!

And my all time favorite.....and the reason I make the syrup every year....

Fig Syrup over hot crepes in the morning. Indescribably Good!!!!!!

Fig syrup and hot crepes sound good.

 

[phatfoodz]

Call me crazy but my favorite stone fired pizza is fresh fig, prosciutto, Gorgonzola, olive oil, and after it’s baked a little arugula on top. Whenever I see fresh figs, that’s where my brain goes.