The dried ones too

The dried Kalamatas are nice and chewy and have figgy depth. They soften nicely in the cream.

Having the dried figs in cream is a substitute for the absentee fresh ones that I grow on the - thus far - five trees. They give tons of figs, and I'm a big dumb weakling when it comes to giving them away. I like doing that - that is, to people who actually like them. Still, I keep a ton in the freezer, but they don't last long. They all get consumed by about - what is it - the end of October? But at some point in winter, their memory begins to haunt me, and I resort to store-bought dried figs.

The dried ones with viable seeds are a completely different fig from the fresh. I like the fresh best.

At the same "farmer's market" store down from where I live that I buy the dried figs, they had "fresh" figs one time - from Brazil - and I bought two just to see how they compare with the ones I grow.

I must tell about those figs from Brazil. They were so insipid it was like eating snot. If that is people's experience of figs, then no wonder people say they're not fans. Not that I was surprised, though it did make me happy to know that the figs from the trees I grow are so superior in sweetness, flavour, texture, etc. that there is simply no comparing. I'm not tooting my own horn - I don't "grow" them - the trees grow them with the aid of light and water and heat and such. I merely tend. And talk to them.

I understand that they pick the figs before they have properly ripened, and figs do not ripen off the tree. All for the sake of shelf life, and shipping life. I'm guessing that they also "force" the figs by over-watering to make them super plump, which waters down the flavour (kind of like anti-Francis Super Catholics ginning up the culture of appearances). Picking figs before they have ripened is a crime. I committed this offense so many times - picking some of the first ripening figs too early - that it was only by having my own stupidity shoved in my face after something like the fourth year that I began to learn the art of long-drawn detachment that fig trees demand.

Did you know that someone under a fig tree is a symbol of prayer?