Another bumper crop is coming in. I'm not even trying to keep up with
the harvest. It's a veritable ecosystem in the fig trees right now.
Beetles, birds, bees, butterflies, and who knows what living and
feasting in there. I've given up the figs above the ground level as
of yesterday. I'll let the rest of the hungry organisms in the
neighborhood have them. The ladder will molder unused for the season.
It's a tall stand of trees.
I've dried a couple of quarts of figs so far. I made some savory fig
leather with pureed figs, lemon juice, serrano chiles, rosemary, and
black pepper. Weird, but tasty. Fig jerky, after a fashion. Dinner
guests next fall will be alarmed, I'm sure.
It takes about 8 hours to dry a batch of figs if you halve them
beforehand. Here's a photo at 4 hours:
http://i15.tinypic.com/4yhix52.jpg
That'll be another pint when it's dry. I'm pacing myself at a pint a
day at present since I'm actually working this summer, too. If I were
trying to maximize production, I coul easily triple that. I gave a
pint of the dried ones to a new friend last week, and she ate the
whole pack in one night. They're like candy, I'm telling you.
--
modom
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com