First Twiggy Piggy Tails

Her first little pig tails are just too cute. Her Daddy even said so!

Only took me 19 tries to get a semi-decent one of both of them together!

Here's one of the shaggy boy who I should have thought to get a haircut, from Mamaw, for while we were in Tyler.

Done Done the Can Can!

Four 1/2 Pint Jars of Fig Preserves

I have now canned (which seems like a silly term, to me, since you’re really putting the food into JARS) two batches of fig preserves, following my grandmother’s recipe. The first batch we over cooked… I left Jason to stir them while I ran to Wal-mart for the jars and a few other things we needed… I told him to just let them go till I got back because there was so much water I figured I’d be back in plenty of time. It took me longer than I thought it would, and so he actually stopped them about 10 minutes before I got back cause they were already gumming up and looking like preserves (while they were still hot… you can imagine what they’re like now that they’re cooled!) The stuff was just too thick to try and strain the seeds out, so we just jarred it all up. I got three 1/2 pint jars out of that first batch.

I picked 16 more figs today and just made 1 more 1/2 pint out of that today. I made sure not to overcook them this time, and strained it to get some of the seeds out, hence the prettier end product. I think you can tell from the pic which one I did today! I’m not sure how many more jars we’ll get this season since we wasted so many figs the first time around (probably about 3-4 jars worth) but I’m hoping for 1-2 more before the tree finally just shrivels up from this extreme heat. It’s already loosing leaves like crazy. Stupid 100+ degree weather all the time!

Granny’s Fig Preserves:

4 Cups of Ripened Figs (I cut mine in half to make them bite sized pieces)
2 Cups of Sugar
1/4 Cup of Water
3 Half Pint Mason Jars (1 Pint Jar would probaly do the trick too, if there’s any extra you can put it in a tupperware tub in the fridge to use before cracking into your preserved jar. )

This process is what she calls “the quick way”, but it will still take 1-2 hours to prepare!
In a sauce pan, combine sugar and water over low-medium heat. Stir frequently to

Canning for Dummies

So yeah. I seriously know nothing about being a gardener. It apparently helps to check the internet before just ASSUMING that all figs are the same. I was asking my grandmother what they were supposed to look like when they were ripe, and she said brownish, but if you can leave them until they turn purple, they’ll be REALLY good. Well, come to find out via Google, I have a completely different variety that is fully ripened at golden yellow. Unfortunately, I picked mine at golden yellow and let them continue to “ripen” until they started to turn brown. And after almost a week now, they HAVE turned brown and purple in some cases, only draw back is that they are now fuzzy. Yeah. Fuzzy. I’ve wasted over 2lbs of figs now because they got rotten! Stupid figs were already ripe when I picked them! *sigh* I just hope I have enough still out there that I can at least muster a FEW jars of fig preserves. I’ll let ya know how that goes. I’ve never canned anything in my life, even though I’ve got 2 sets of grandparents who do it and my parents even have. I got instructions on the general process from my grandmother tonight, over the phone, but I was really hoping to go up and visit her to learn how to do it first hand. Unfortunately, that trip to the farm was cancled when Nana passed away. I’m hoping I can get some time to go up there soon though. They’ve never even seen my little man walking and he’s been doing that for months now!

The Farmer in the Dell

2 lbs of Figs!

What the heck is a Dell anyway? Maybe I should Google it to find out. Anyway, we’ve just committed our first “farmer-like” act… I harvested our first “crop” hehe.

The new house we bought used to have a veggie garden and some fruit trees. The garden went by the wayside since the house was vacant for 8 months, and the peach and pecan trees don’t look like they’re old enough to produce yet, but the FIG TREE had loads of little figs all over it when we moved in.

A non-ripe and "ripe" fig compared to a cheerio

I was tickled pink because my grandmother has always made her own fig preserves and that’s been a favorite biscuit topping of mine, at her house, for as long as I can remember. It’s right up there with chocolate gravy! I was always worried that some day she’d be gone and the fig perserves would be gone too. Now I have them in my own back yard, so I plan to take my first “crop” of figs with me to her house next week to learn how to make them in to perserves the way she does. I can’t wait! Jason and I have also talked about planting a little veggie garden back there, where the old one used to be. Who knows, maybe next season I’ll have even more farmer experience.