The Beginning of Fig Picking Season

   I've been watching our li'l fig tree closely in anticipation of the of our 'fig picking time'!

  You may recall the terrible tribulations from previous posts of this little tree.  It has been frozen to the ground at least twice.  The poor guy had all its leaves blown off on several occasions during various storms.  Once, during hurricane season, it had even been blown over onto its side, totally uprooted, but this tenacious little tree put out a feeler on one of it's fallen branches along the ground several feet from it's original position and sprouted itself again!  It refuses to give up, so how could we? 
  We continue to give it its annual 13-13-13 feeding and while doing so, we ask God to bless it and it keep growing between all the disasters it has to contend with. 
   Today, I went out and did the 'fig tree dance', sticking my head inside the wide thicket of huge leaves and going round and round the tree several times giving the prospective-looking figs the pinch test.  There were several big and brown and ripening,

but I found only five that were soft to the touch and willing to easily come off the tree, so they passed my pinch test. That's how ya know your figs are at peak ripeness and very sweet.  If they still feel hard and you have to tug on them to pick them, they aren't ready, so leave then for a day, then try again. You will be amazed at the difference.

These five here will be parked in the freezer in a big zip lock bag, awaiting company from the rest of the ripened fruit, which looks to be a lot, since the tree is loaded with baby "figlets".  When the bag is full we will can them, and I can hardly wait!  Since this is the start of the season, I thought I'd post links to our basic fig recipes for you, to let you know what "Figgy's" 'babies' are in for.

This is the recipe for fig preserves:

http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/2014/08/old-fashioned-fig-preserve.html

This is our strawberry figs recipe:

http://cappyandpegody.blogspot.com/2014/08/strawberry-figs.html

      We hope you enjoy these old family recipes and wish you, too, a happy fig season.

   And as for our tenacious little fig tree, if nothing else assails him, we will be able to say with much affection that this year he is having sweet success.