Che Figo! That's what I think about having figs (fichi) growing in our back yard! That expression means something like "cool", and comes from the Italian word for fig (fico). Since we moved in last summer, right at the tail end of the fig season, we've been looking forward to this year's harvest which is just beginning. For some reason we had an early batch of figs, most are just beginning to ripen now, and I took advantage of this by making my first ever batch of fig jam.
We actually have three fig trees growing out in our back yard...more figs than we could ever eat on our own. But we'll try! The trees are completely loaded with green figs right now. When they're ready to eat, they turn yellow and then purple and get a lot softer. It takes about a kilo of fresh figs to make a batch of jam that will fill two large mason jars. That's about a half a kilo in that plastic tub.
Making the jam is pretty easy once you get up in the tree to pick the figs. You just clean them and cut them up into small chunks, skin and all, and put them in a sauce pan and start cooking. Here's the super unhealthy part...sorry to all my health nut friends. You add the same amount of sugar as figs! That's 1 kilo of figs to 1 kilo of sugar! I know there's probably a better recipe, but this is really good. The only other ingredients are lemon juice (for some pectin) and fresh ginger (for a little kick). After about an hour you get a brown mushy gooey delicious mess and it's ready...
...to sit in the shade under the fig tree and have a snack! Che Figo!
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