Fig Trees, Fig Jam Recipe & Sandpaper Figs

It was so fun today to be able to serve the lovely Travel Club bus group who came for a tour of the farm with some fresh-picked figs and raspberries with their morning tea. We have no idea what variety our fig is, as we inherited it with the farm, but it’s a beautiful shape, with lovely big leaves and is about 7ft tall now. It produces quite a squat fruit.

It’s definitely not a dark-skinned variety (Brown Turkey & Black Genoa), so that means it must be a light-skinned, but it doesn’t quite match the description of a White Adriatic. The skin is a lovely light green colour with splashes of purple…so maybe it’s a cross-bred!

It’s produced an abundance of fruit this year, so our lovely Wwoofer Joo has spent some time turning the harvest into fig jam. Have you ever had fig jam over ice cream? Unbelievably delicious! And fresh raw honey drizzled over figs…umm… Yummm! We’re also going to try drying some too. Rada down at Farmers Patch in Forster was telling us about how they used to dry the figs just out in the sun, and also dip them in salt water. We’ll probably make use of our solar oven and see how they turn out…and maybe try Rada’s pinch of salt for some tang!

It’s probably apt that the town name “Nabiac” is indigenous for “place of the wild fig”, so in addition to the introduced figs, a few years ago we planted a number of Australian sandpaper figs (Ficus Coronate) along our creek. It’s a multi-purpose plant providing the farmstay with stream bank stabilisation, sandpaper-like leaves and a yummy edible fruit. Our favourite bushtucker so far has been midyim berries, but haven't yet had  a chance to try the sandpaper fig.

Here are some links to Fig Jam Recipes if you want to give them a try:

• All Recipes Fig Jam Recipe
• Taste.com.au Fig Jam Recipe
• SBS Food Fig Jam Recipe
   

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