My World

I knew it would be soon. I’ve been monitoring every couple days.  Today was a rare moment of ME time while hubby was gone to physical therapy. We are back into our normal north east Alabama summer weather thank goodness. The horrid horrid intense humidity and heat seem to have left the area.  So I went for a very short walk along the river front and then headed to the yarn shop to discuss my next project and order yarn.  I took my time and listened to my favorite political news podcast on the way home.  By the time I arrived hubby had mowed the whole yard and was headed to fill up the gas tank.  When he got home he let me know the time had come…..  yes,  as I stated,  I KNEW it was getting close but I honestly thought I had at least another week or two….

Well,  wishful thinking that was. Yes indeed it is time. Time for at least a daily picking till it gets full blown into harvesting three times a day. What in the world am I talking about you ask? Well,  here in the deep south we are blessed to have a very Large fig tree.  Did I mention I’m Highly allergic to the white sap as in my skin blisters,  itches and bleeds with extended contact requiring long sleeves and gloves AND I have to climb the tree???? We LOVE fried fig pies and fig preserves.  Once the harvest begins in earnest I am pretty much chained to the kitchen canning preserves. 

Last year I put up 52 pints, of which we still have 10 or so, gave at least a 5 gallon bucket of fresh ones away and ate fresh ones every day as well. When I was exhausted and had more than enough put away for the year including some in the freezer………… and couldn’t get any of ALL THOSE PEOPLE that pleaded to let them know when they could come pick,  to actually come PICK them,  I gladly let the birds and insects take what they wanted. After only 3 days of what can only be described as a cross between the Hitchcock movie The Birds and a biblical plague of insects  the tree was picked clean as if it never had one fig… no sticky mess left. 

That was last year.  With all the rain since then,  the tree has grown and spread at least a third or more larger than last year.  I’m sure it is entertaining for someone to see this old near 68 year old woman,  hair in a bun, no skin visible except my face up in a tree with a cane to pull the limber branches within reach and a bucket hanging from my other arm. It is definitely a work out. This is done 3 times a day for about 3 weeks or so. Then I can rest till the second crop comes in. It is a toss up of which harvest is the largest. I’m thinking the second harvest will be who ever wants them because there are tons of figs out there right now waiting their turn to ripen. This is the beginning. Not many but it will expand many times more over the next few days.

These will remain in the fridge till I have enough for a batch of preserves. The nice thing about figs is they stop ripening once picked so they will stay fresh several days in the refrigerator.