Fresh figs and ham!

My fig trees have put out a quantum crap-load of fruit this year, so I finally got over my fresh-fig-phobia.

See, I never actually had to confront a fresh fig until maybe seven years ago. My entire idea of figs was Newton-filling. Fresh figs are just so different. They're too sweet, runny, squishy--just couldn't deal with them. Dried--yep. Fresh--no. And refrigerated, the way they pretty much have to be because they're all squishy and whatnot? Ew.

But I just wrapped a half-dozen of them in ham (once also a not-favorite food--too pink, too wet, too salty) with a little smidgen of blue cheese and roasted them until the ham became a brown-edged taco shell of porkulence and the blue cheese and fig juice became a brownish syrup--

Sheer heaven.

Although this is not the way to get rid of a few pounds of them....

yum :9

to use for baking over the winter. They make great pies when mixed with almost any other fruit (like tart apples).
My wife also made jam with figs and lemons this week, which is fantastic. I am at about 18 pounds of frozen figs, 3 jars of jam and a few hundred more figs on the tree.

I love them every way I have ever had them.

mark

I've been a little worried about freezing them because of the afforementioned "squishiness"--I think I'll have to try it this year. Eurosealing is out since they are fragile--do you freeze them with water or "as is"?

Baking might be my best way to use them. (Fig and apple pie already has a nice ring to it. I can't convince my family that they are "food"--they aren't sold on my grapes either, because they have seeds!)

They were very good for baking/cooking...I made pies with them using apples, various stewed dried fruit (prunes,dried apricots, rasins and figs stewed with orange juice, then baked in a frozen pie shell with spices -cinnamon, ginger and a little nutmeg - my favorites) they are also great as pies with just figs, with a little brown sugar, spice and corn starch to thicken the juice, and of course a little butter on top of it all. I lie to invent pies as I go along, or just use whatever I have on hand - I made a nectarine pie yesterday morning that is now gone.

It was great.
They look odd when they are thawed, but bake up just fine and I bet they would be good in a coffee cake.....
This year I am freezing them just plain.

mark

I'd have had one either (except for going to Italy, where things like oranges, figs, grapes, Cactus pears, et als, just seem to spring up all over). I don't think I've ever seen them at a supermarket or farmer's market.

But the squirrels get at them first.

They are squishy, sticky, and they have a strange texture, but they're delicious.

If you pull them off the tree, the best thing to do is gulp them down fast--after knocking off the ants. (Bugs love figs--this year, I realized yellowjackets love them, too--yikes!!!) And we tend to use cardboard boxes to collect them in--they ooze their juice into the cardboard a bit. Tasty figs--but really gross boxes!