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Preservation To Preserve Figs

to preserve figs
(from The Carolina Housewife, Or, House and Home, by Sarah Rutledge, 1847)

Ingredients:
1 lb. of 1/2 ripe figs​
3/4 lb. sugar​
stick cinnamon​
Instructions:

Pick your figs when a little more than half ripe; peel them very thin, and to a pound of fruit put three- quarter of a pound of sugar; make a syrup, and put the figs into it, with a good deal of stick cinnamon; let them boil till clear, stirring frequently.​


The first week in November is National Fig week, so thought I do a thread on figs.

The fig is actually a flower that is inverted into itself. The seeds are the real fruit.

The fig goes back hundreds and hundreds of years in history. It was shown in records of the Sumerians and Assyrians. The cultivated fig industry started in Asia, in area known as Mesopotamia.. It spread to the Phoenicians and Greeks and on to Africa, Spain, Portugal and up into the English Channel by the end of the 14th century.

Figs were first introduced into the New World by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries. They first were brought to the West Indies in 1520 and Peru in 1528. Figs quickly spread across the southeastern United States. They consequently were imported to California were the Franciscan missionaries planted them in the mission gardens at San Diego in 1769 and in Santa Clara by 1792, Ventura in 1793, and Sonoma a few years later. These figs were called Mission and were the first dark purple California figs.

During the gold rush, American settlers brought a wide variety of figs to California. By 1867 there were over 1000 acres of fig trees in the Sacramento Valley and 35 acres in the San Joaquin Valley. The first carload of dried figs was shipped to the east in 1889.

Figs are now one of the largest crops from California. California's fresh fig season starts in mid-May and continues through mid-December. With California's excellent climate and equisite soil, it is the idea place for the fig trees. California produces four varieties of Fresh Figs. These are: Brown Turkey, Black Mission, Kadota and Calimyma.

From: "About Figs/California Figs.
 
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My fig tree is four years old, finally has a bumper crop - over two dozen fruits, still ripening.

My first fruit, off the tree and onto the plate. It is very pleasant.
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