All Figged Out!

This is our first year at Finca La Reina and I don't think we knew what to expect from 30 fig trees. Lets be more accurate... about ten of those trees are still quite young and the yield from them has been negligible.  So that makes 20 trees... some of these (about another ten) have been neglected in recent years and are more dead branches than live ones... so that takes us down to about 10 trees.  Of this ten... one is a purple skinned and is not quite ripe yet (although we have had the odd ripe one off it) so that leaves 9.  From our 9 producing trees we have so far picked 30kg of figs.

There are of course, still more to come, but already we are getting lax and some figs are rotting on the trees.  I keep telling myself that this year doesn't count.  We haven't even unpacked all our boxes yet and I can't find my maslin pan so fig jam in any quantity is proving difficult.

So... what am I going to do with all those figs.  Well we are drying some - bit of an experiment, the locals do it all the time, how hard can it be?  I am using some clothes airers with fabric pegged over the top... it's a bit makeshift but it will do for now.

Is it possible to over-dry them?  I think it might be... I've had to bin a few already.  Next time I will only dry the really large ones... oh and damaged ones are useless for drying... they just seem to go bad... so damaged figs will have to go into jam, good ones for drying (oh and eating fresh), and slightly under-ripe ones for making into preserves.  Trouble is, I am really just not ready to do this yet... my kitchen isn't even built yet and we are using a very basic and small space to do everything.

Never mind... I am doing my best not to let any of the figs go to waste.  Plenty of fig recipes under August's tab so if you are a lover of the fig... check it out.