Friday, August 21, 2009

Figs, Glorious Figs!

August is fig season in metro Atlanta, which makes the heat and humidity somehow easier to tolerate.
For the past couple of weeks, I've been watching the figs slowly get bigger on the tree, knowing that it's time for the annual "poker game" with the squirrels and birds. Sometimes I feel as though we are all watching to see when they'll be just right for picking, and it's always an "Aha!" moment when I get to the fruits before the critters do.

Walking along the path this morning, there were six figs perfectly ripe for the picking (the tree is in part shade, so we're typically a week or so behind everyone else). Of course they were at the top of the tree, so it meant getting out the ladder and a pair of clippers to climb up there, but it's definitely worth the work. Looking up at them in the sunshine, they were literally dripping with that sticky liquid the birds adore so much.
Most of us have emotional attachments to certain gardening activities, and for me, eating figs off a tree definitely falls into that category. Is there anything quite so sensual as biting into a fig, and feeling that sticky sweet juice pouring onto your hand?

I left the five prettiest fruits in a basket on the porch for "Mrs.," but just couldn't resist the temptation standing there on the ladder, clippers in one hand, the warm ripe fig in the other.....
Are we sure it was an apple that got Adam expelled from Eden?

5 comments:

  1. Our figs are just ripening now too. The birds haven't discovered them yet. Glad you were able to get some before the birds. I'd love to know how you prepare them, the only problem I have is what to do with them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you click on the "fig" label, there are two recipes I've had good success with. I have to look up a couple of other recipes to list here; the truth is that mostly I just eat them in August until I'm sick!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I ate my first ripe fig straight from a bush last summer. This winter, I learned how to propagate that plant and bring it to my yard. Amazing that one bite can make us do that. No figs this year, but the plant grew from one stem of a branch to nearly 4' tall. Next year I hope to have bunches of figs to sit in the back yard and om nom nom nom... :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Randy's mother has a huge fig tree in the edge of the woods behind her house. Last summer, I had the experience of biting into a sweetly, sun-ripened fig for the first time. I grew up in rural Alabama and we did have fig trees, but as a child I never really took the time to notice what wonderful fruit the trees bear each season. I enjoyed your post and thank for you stopping by our blog recently! ;0)

    --Jamie @ J&R

    ReplyDelete
  5. Figs are another one of those things that don't thrive in MI, but I think they are a cool plant and fruit.

    ReplyDelete