Fun With Figs

In the last month or so I have come across a few different species of Ficus fruits ranging from bland to not so bland to slightly sweet our Australian native figs aren’t like the cultivated types you buy in shops or see in gardens and you will be well disappointed if you are expecting them to be lushly sweet and juicy like those but even though not the best bush fruits we have here in Australia they are the most abundant occurring genus of plants and there is bound to be a species in every part of Australia or though saying that I never did see any in Tasmania as it may be a bit cold there.

Anyway the first one you can see in the pictures above was a gorgeous weeping spreading tree I’m not 100% sure on species but I’m thinking Ficus virigata…..
The fruit was slimy and sticky when ripe they were quite sweet too the fruit was prolific on each branch but it wasn’t ripening all at once which would make harvesting enough to do any major cooking with tedious and time consuming, but they were one of the sweetest native figs I’ve come across so far so it would be worth the effort unfortunately I’m not close enough to pick every day and freeze to get enough to make a jam or sauce but when I have transport if they are still around I will try to get enough to cook with.

The next fig in this blog is Ficus congesta they are a cluster fig hence the name, they are quite bland and normally covered in green ants so it is a battle to pick any and again it is rare to find a good lot ripe at once so I decide I would experiment with them a bit green…..

I washed the sticky residue and probable green ant poo off them and put them into a small jar I then made a sugar syrup with raw sugar a few cloves a bit of cinnamon bark a few all spice and some home made fruit vinegar when I remembered I had bought this amazing Black Sapote (Diospyros digyna) fruit port at the Mossman show so I added a nip of this to the syrup mixture as well and poured over the fruit enough to cover it then I put the lid on, lush!  I will let this sit for a week or so on the bench and hopefully the fruit will take on all the sweetness and flavors of the syrup it has been sitting for a day already as I do this blog and they have already plumbed up heaps so hopefully they will taste amazing, I will up date blog on how it turned out.
I’m sure there will be more fig fun to come as I discover more different types  throughout the year.