Fig Jam

Just wanted to share our little fig story with you. You see that tree below? That is where this story begins.
When we moved into our home a few years back we got this huge fig tree. It is in our back yard and is probably 30 feet/about 3 stories tall. Well I was never really familiar with figs and sure they tasted good but I never really ate them.

The kids would step all over the fallen ones and track a mess all over the place. I hated this! What a mess! I did however Love Love Love the awesome shade it provided. I thought if only there was a way to make the tree stop growing it's fruit. Because believe me it produces some fruit. I'm talking hundreds of figs! I posted this question on a fig forum and boy was that dumb! Like gardening suicide! I got tons of replies. Mainly by people that were so mad that I could even think of such a thing. They suggested that I might as well just cut it down! No Way! I love the shade and trees I just hate the mess!

I decided I would just put up with the summer long mess. With each passing year I am getting used to the mess and the kids have learned to avoid the fallen figs. I am not quite bothered by the mess anymore! What bothers me now is the fact that this tree makes tons of figs and we do nothing with them. Hardly anyone eats them. They just drop and that is that! This is the first year that 2 people actually took a bag of them home.

I thought if this tree makes so much fruit I need to do something with it. So I got online, found a recipe for fig jam and then I saw another blog post that led me to the same recipe. I thought I must try. Here is the end result below. Isn't the color beautiful? And it is very tasty! The whole family loves it! So now I will decorate the jars and these are gonna be Christmas gifts. I know it's a bit early for Christmas but the figs are ripe now, so I couldn't wait til then to make it! Besides this jam will last up to 18 months if unopened. And I am going to do this every year because I do not want the figs to go to waste.

Here are some photos of the process.

Whole Figs

Cut Figs

Cooking the fig jam.

Fig jam just about cooked. It will then be poured into the jars.

All done!

Ready to eat!

Also see the wedding favor made from the jam here.