Figs

One of my favorite seasonal fruits to be found here in the Balkans in August are figs. Since the first leaves appeared in the spring I've been watching the fruit slowly mature, and today they were ready. :)

Now here's the funny thing about me liking figs at all: as a child I really disliked them (hated even). As a family, besides picking August blackberries (another favorite), we'd pick ripe figs from a tree that grew in the wild near Folsom Lake. My Mom would then spend hours preparing them into a sweet cooked/candied dessert... that I refused to eat and, consequently, spent many an hour at the dinner table with a plate in front of me long after everyone else was done. There was just something about the texture and sticky sweetness that triggered my gag-reflex... I guess figs to me were like broccoli to other kids. It wasn't until years later, when my brother coaxed me with a fresh fig from the tree in his backyard, that I started to like them.

Now, having tried the fresh figs from the tree here in the Balkans, I'm hooked. I still don't prefer them cooked and so you can imagine how ironic it is that it just happens to be a favored specialty here in Macedonia! I used to say that it was one of the few items that I might actually refuse if offered some by a Macedonian friend... but quickly found I couldn't bring myself to be that rude last year when the family I stayed with in Dojran proudly served me a portion. It was wonderful... but if you say I said that I'll deny it! Still, my favorite is when they're fresh off the tree and still slightly on the tart side of ripe. Exactly what I found today on the way to work and later enjoyed for breakfast!

I wonder if Jesus was anticipating enjoying that juicy sweet flavor when he was hungry and looked for fruit on that tree that only had leaves? There was no fruit, he said, "May you never bear fruit again," and by the next day it was withered. I always wondered about that until I read that the fruit actually grows with the leaves? That means if you see leaves on a fig tree there should be fruit. Because there were leaves he was expecting there be fruit. Interesting application here, but I'll leave that to the theologians. :) I've also read that fig trees are supposed to have two crops as well: one in the spring and the other in late summer. Maybe that's for a different type of fig tree because the trees I've seen here have had only one crop each year: in August.

Anyways, if you've never tried figs, I highly encourage you too. If you're like me and don't prefer the cooked variety, try them right off the tree... they're amazing.