The Way I Figgered It

Day 300: The way I had it figgered, I could get five in a jar because they'd get squishy during the five-minute simmer required for the hot-pack method. Raw, three was the best I could do. I'd originally guessed at 60 for ten pints, but when I saw them on the tree, I realized they were a little bigger in real life than in my memory. I came home with 66 (a nearly full two-gallon pail!) and after processing, I had twelve pints of figs to tuck away for winter. That gives me one jar per week for the official three-month season.

Why go to all this work when I could have dried them much more easily? Because I love canned figs. Forty years ago, you could buy them in stores under the S&W brand name. They came in glass jars. They became harder and harder to find until finally disappearing from the shelves, and I swore that if I ever had a chance, I'd can my own. I am grateful to the friends in Olympia who allowed me to harvest enough from their tree (Desert King) to see me through the winter. My own tree (four years old, and a start from theirs) has not yet produced a fig although each year, it's putting on more leaves and branches. Maybe some day!