Does anyone know about growing figs?

[nogadge]

They also dehydrate well, make great preserves/spreads and bake fabulously, saute them, anything your heart desires!  Poultry-pork-beef...not sure about fish, but should lend to shell fish, and definately salads.
I think positive deviations from our pain is always a good thing to share and re-enforce between each othe.  Thanks, Nogadge

[gjazz]

True!  I also use them in stuffing for roasted pork, and the leaves are great for fish--wrap the fish in a leaf and barbecue or bake.  Or serve the fruit with salt fish and crostini.

[lighter]

Try looking up a vinegar out of California. 

It's this magical blend of balsamic, figs and lemon..... fresh and wonderful on fruit, salads and recipes.

I think google takes you right to it.

[nogadge]

It sounds to me that I'm not the only one with the secret life in in the kitchen Nogadge

[gjazz]

Not so secret!  I grow 30 varieties of heirloom tomato, many other veggies, herbs and roots (all seasons), all organically.  I've spent days huffing seven cubic yards of compost in from the alley by wheelbarrow this year, because the soil's too depleted to fix via legumes or other cover crops.  No figs, though, I have to steal those from a friend.  He has lots.

[Hopalong]

I LOVE obsessed gardeners.

It's food for the soul.

Hops

[nogadge]

You are so right, fixing food for and with others does so much more...it feeds ours and their souls, nourishes ones mind and well being.  I have missed it.   Nogadge

[gjazz]

Very obsessed.  I moved from NYC a decade ago, and I grow everything imaginable, mostly food crops to be used fresh, frozen and canned, but also for the local food bank.  And of, yeah, I have flower gardens too.  But the best soil goes for food.  For anyone out there who wants a hobby that will take you out of yourself, and help others, in ANY climate, grow food for those less fortunate. At any age, any gender.  It makes such a huge difference.

[lighter]

When I was single..... after my first divorce.... I grew about 20 tomato plants and assorted other lovely squashes, peppers and beans.

Getting lost in all that lush (tall) greenery, in my little backyard, was an unexpected pleasure.

I had no idea pulling weeds and tying branches to a cage would be so important in my life.

Nurturing things, turns out to be what makes me happy, and so now that my children can go potty themselves......

it's back to the earth again. 

Tomatoes.....

not like the red sweet variety my grandmother grew in the black soil of Ohio,

 but similar.....

YES.

 ps  I really enjoy reading about your avid gardening/kitchen enjoyment, gjazz.

And ((Hops....))
 how are you?

[lighter]

http://www.amazon.com/Fig-Lemon-Balsamic-Vinegar-8-45/dp/B000J01C5S


Hope this comes up..... such a nice summertime/fall/winter treat!

Lighter

[teartracks]

lighter,

Wanted to say that I have a sterile fig tree.  About five years old, kind of leggy and no fruit.  I've enjoyed your thread on figs.  I practically started drooling when you mentioned that California vinegar. 

It's good to hear that you and the kiddles are doing well.

tt

[lighter]

How big's your tree, tt?

Maybe if you dig part of it up....

plant it a bit aways off.....

 it'll do that....

cross.....

pollination....

thing?

Still have a lot to learn about fig trees, I'm afraid.

But we can both get some lemony fig balsamic vinegar: )

[teartracks]

Hey lighter,

I was wondering about that pollination part.  I only have one tree.  It's about seven feet tall.

The limbs seem to be too far apart compared to the fig trees we had when I was a kid, but then the ones we had when I was a kid were inland about 30 miles where the soil is different.   I think I should read up. 

Thanks,

tt

[Leah]

All this talk about figs has brought back a most pleasant memory, previously tucked away and forgotton about.

Few years ago, in my office I had a coffee maker, for myself and others, and I would try various ground coffee types and blends.

My absolute favourite, and much favoured by others too, was the "Viennese Coffee with Figs" (ground coffee blend).

The aroma was lovely, and the taste was superb.

Memories of that coffee, which I have not enjoyed since leaving the company, wherein, many good friends were made, and enjoyed.

At some point in time, I may attempt to source that particular coffee blend and enjoy.

I am very much interested in the  Californian Fig Lemon Balsamic Vinegar, available from amazon, which is good news.

Thank you for reviving that pleasant memory.

Leah x

[Hopalong]

I crave it too, what a yummy idea. BUT...I crave a recipe for making it myself, since it's expensive and I am no longer a believer in importing food across the continent in a truck, because of fuel and the issue of climate change.

LOCAVORE is a new term for people who "eat locally" in order to consume less oil, pollute less air, produce less carbon. I have just begun to change my awareness about that. Apparently one of my mainstays, spring mix, is a collossal waste of fuel during its life cycle. So I gotta grow my own.

(Not to say I never order anything that's delivered UPS. Not so. But...it's a start.)

In addition to all this preaching, paying almost as much for shipping as for the bottle of vinegar is REALLY what stopped me! (I just got 2 books from Amazon. Both, ironically, on Square Foot Gardening, which is where I'm growing organic veggies.) Oh, choices. We have so many.

But yikes, this would take me a month. Suddenly that bottle on Amazon's looking pretty good!
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/how-vinegar-works2.htm

Oh well. I guess we have to buy some stuff from other places.

sigh,
Hops whose climate is changing