We barely finish one project before the next one is knocking on our door. I wrote about finishing up our canning and freezing quota in my last post, and now our fig tree is weighted down with the most figs it has ever produced!
You probably can't see the figs in this picture, but trust me, it has outdone itself, just like our vegetable garden has. You also can't hear it, but the tree sounds like it has a humming motor in the midst of it because it is working alive with bees, wasps, and hornets. They love the sweetness of the figs just like we do!
My husband, Neil, worked out a deal with our daughter. Heather borrowed a dehydrator from her mother-in-law and has dried several pickings of figs "on-the-halves" for her daddy. (He loves dried figs and buys them often.) So now, he has some healthy snacks stashed away to last a while, as does our daughter.
Now Neil is gradually collecting the rest of the figs as they ripen, and stashing them away in the freezer until we have time ~ and the want-to ~ to make Strawberry Fig Preserves.
I thought since it is Fig season (at least it is in Alabama), that I would re-run my instructions for making the preserves. Please come back and let me know if you make them. I would love to know if others love the preserves as much as we do.
Our fig tree had more figs than we could eat this year so I decided to make preserves. Neil and I, both, remember the wonderful tasting strawberry fig preserves our mothers made when we were kids, so with some instructions from our County Extension Service I tried my hand at it. I'll show how I did it ~ the trials and the triumphs.
Step 1: Wash jelly jars in hot, soapy water.
Step 2: Sterilize the jars and lids.
Step 3: Wash, peel, and mash figs. Well, now that's what the instructions said to do but it didn't start out too well for me. My figs were very ripe, meaning very soft. I don't know if you've ever tried to peel a soft fig before but...
...the fig and I quickly became enemies. After working at this for about ten minutes I had about three little "blops" in the bottom of my big pot and knew at this rate it would take me all day just to peel them. I decided to just pull out the stems and forget the peeling. So, after pulling out the stems, I just mashed them up and went on with the next step.
Step 4: Measure 3 cups mashed figs into a large, thick-bottom pan and add two 3-oz. boxes of strawberry gelatin and 3 cups of sugar.
Step 5: Heat to a boil. Lower heat and boil slowly 3-5 minutes, stirring often.
Step 6: Fill hot jars immediately with fig mixture leaving a 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and add lids.
Step 7: Process half-pints in a boiling water-bath canner 5 minutes. This makes about 6 half-pints.
Step 8: Scrape the pot and taste-test your finished product. I put a spoonful over some plain yogurt and sat down for a yummy snack.
Guess what we had for supper that night? We had hot, made from scratch, buttermilk biscuits, homemade strawberry-fig preserves with a side of bacon and a pot of coffee...Southern eating at its best!
(You may see my original post here: Making Strawberry~Fig Preserves.)
You probably can't see the figs in this picture, but trust me, it has outdone itself, just like our vegetable garden has. You also can't hear it, but the tree sounds like it has a humming motor in the midst of it because it is working alive with bees, wasps, and hornets. They love the sweetness of the figs just like we do!
My husband, Neil, worked out a deal with our daughter. Heather borrowed a dehydrator from her mother-in-law and has dried several pickings of figs "on-the-halves" for her daddy. (He loves dried figs and buys them often.) So now, he has some healthy snacks stashed away to last a while, as does our daughter.
Now Neil is gradually collecting the rest of the figs as they ripen, and stashing them away in the freezer until we have time ~ and the want-to ~ to make Strawberry Fig Preserves.
I thought since it is Fig season (at least it is in Alabama), that I would re-run my instructions for making the preserves. Please come back and let me know if you make them. I would love to know if others love the preserves as much as we do.
Making Strawberry~Fig Preserves
Our fig tree had more figs than we could eat this year so I decided to make preserves. Neil and I, both, remember the wonderful tasting strawberry fig preserves our mothers made when we were kids, so with some instructions from our County Extension Service I tried my hand at it. I'll show how I did it ~ the trials and the triumphs.
Step 1: Wash jelly jars in hot, soapy water.
Step 2: Sterilize the jars and lids.
Step 3: Wash, peel, and mash figs. Well, now that's what the instructions said to do but it didn't start out too well for me. My figs were very ripe, meaning very soft. I don't know if you've ever tried to peel a soft fig before but...
...the fig and I quickly became enemies. After working at this for about ten minutes I had about three little "blops" in the bottom of my big pot and knew at this rate it would take me all day just to peel them. I decided to just pull out the stems and forget the peeling. So, after pulling out the stems, I just mashed them up and went on with the next step.
Step 4: Measure 3 cups mashed figs into a large, thick-bottom pan and add two 3-oz. boxes of strawberry gelatin and 3 cups of sugar.
Step 5: Heat to a boil. Lower heat and boil slowly 3-5 minutes, stirring often.
Step 6: Fill hot jars immediately with fig mixture leaving a 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and add lids.
Step 7: Process half-pints in a boiling water-bath canner 5 minutes. This makes about 6 half-pints.
Step 8: Scrape the pot and taste-test your finished product. I put a spoonful over some plain yogurt and sat down for a yummy snack.
Guess what we had for supper that night? We had hot, made from scratch, buttermilk biscuits, homemade strawberry-fig preserves with a side of bacon and a pot of coffee...Southern eating at its best!
(You may see my original post here: Making Strawberry~Fig Preserves.)
Your supper sounds so good to me. My late mom had a huge fig bush. She would eat the figs right off the bush but we also enjoyed her fig preserves. A cute story...mom had a little family of chipmunks and they would "steal" the figs and eat them! lol Your preserves look delicious.
ReplyDeleteMy Sister LOVES figs, straight off the bush or in a jar:) These look SO yummy! Have a blessed and beautiful day dear friend, HUGS!
ReplyDelete