Fig Season

 When the first English explorers came to Ocracoke in the 18th century, they found fig bushes in abundance everywhere.  Down to this very day figs grow happily all over the island.  We have four fig trees in our yard and they are just coming into the beginning of their long season of ripeness.

There are about a half-dozen varieties of figs that grow on the island.  All of ours are Brown Turkey figs and they grow into huge and abundant trees.

Trish and I pick them about every other day.  We are getting about a peck with each picking but this amount will rapidly increase over the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday was fig preserve day.  Trish made 14 jars of preserves as well as boiling down some fig syrup for eating on everything from ice cream to French toast.  They will be delicious in times to come. And this is just the first batch!

This coming weekend is the Ocracoke Fig Festival.  There will be fig preserve contests and fig cake contests along with other recipes and lots of music and dancing.  If you like figs, this is the place to be!