Spiced Green (Unripe) Fig Jam

Tuesday morning, I went out to the squirrel feeder, AKA fig tree, to discover that the next almost-ripe fig has been chewed into. The goodness of another ripe fig gone to those pesky squirrels! Time is running out for any figs to ripen with cold nights just around the corner.

This scenario plays out year after year. We've only tasted a handful of our own ripe figs since we planted the two fig trees almost a dozen years ago. Evidently, there's not much else for squirrels to eat at this time of year.

My Response to Pesky Squirrels
Earlier this week, I took a bucket with me, and picked as many unripe figs as I could reach. Ripe figs are squishy when still on the tree. The unripe ones are firm. To pick an unripe fig, you have to twist the stem, until it breaks, being careful not to get the oozing sap on your skin, as it's a known skin irritant.

When I brought the full bucket of green figs into the house, I filled it with water and set for a 20-minute soak to release the oozing sap while I rounded up jars and spices. Spiced fig jam makes a nice gift, because it's so unusual for this area. So I look for cute small jars for packaging these gifts.

You can use ground spices in this jam, but it's less muddy-looking if you use whole spices. I retrieved my cheesecloth, spice-infusing bag, some cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. I used a whole lemon last year for the zest. This year, I just have bottled lemon juice. I do think that it would be beautiful with long strips of lemon peel in the jar. I'll save that thought for another year. 

After the 20-minute soak in water, I drain the figs, trim the stem end and pierce the bottom end of each (this allows the sap to ooze out), and place the trimmed figs in a stainless pot, covering completely with water.

I bring the trimmed figs to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Unripe figs need 2 to 3 simmering sessions, using fresh water each time. Afterward, I drain the figs in a colander, giving them and the pot a quick rinse. I, then, fill the pot of figs with water. Over Med heat, I bring it to a boil (poke them down from time to time, as they're buoyant), simmer, then drain, repeating this process one last time (for 3 simmering sessions, in total). Drain. Figs change from bright green to an olive green with the cooking process.

The figs are now ready to turn into either jam or whole fig preserves. This is how to make the jam. 

For jam:

1 quart of fine-chopped, cooked figs (unripe), about like you would chop for pickle relish (chop in food processor or with stick blender)
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups of sugar
2 sticks of cinnamon (loose in the jam mixture)
1 heaping tablespoon whole cloves (tied up in cheesecloth or muslin)
3/4 cup of lemon juice

• Fine-chop the cooked, drained figs.
• In a medium stainless or enameled saucepan, stir together fine-chopped figs, water, sugar, and lemon juice. Add the spices, then over the lowest heat, simmer for 1 hour, stirring often. When done, the jam should have some translucency. (Because I like a little extra spice, I add 4 pinches of ground cloves towards the end of the cooking. It gives the jam a rich, earthy, savory flavor. That's up to you. Taste towards the end of cooking, to see if you'd like any extra spice.)

This is supposed to be a thick jam. It will stand up in mounds on a saucer. If you'd like a more "syrup-y" jam, thin with equal parts water and sugar and simmer an 10 additional minutes.

Remove whole spices. Spoon into sterilized jars. Process for 10 to 15 minutes (according to elevation in NCHFP guide in link below) in a boiling water canner. My yield, beginning with 1 quart of fine-chopped, cooked figs is about 5 to 6 half-pints. 

The National Center for Home Food Preservation indicates that a boiling-water canner is sufficient for jams and provides timing according to elevation in a table on this page. In addition to the information concerning jam-process timing, the NCHFP also has a good page about the process for using a boiling-water canner, in case you are unsure.)

This spiced fig jam is delicious paired with a mild and soft cheese, like Brie or even cream cheese, to spread on crackers. I spoon several tablespoons onto a block of cream cheese, to serve with plain crackers.

Just to let you know -- I store my jars of jam in a spare refrigerator. I have no idea how long this will keep on a shelf in the pantry.

A couple of years ago, when I decided to do something with our unripe figs, I had no recipes for this jam. I had to take my little knowledge of figs combined with making jam, then began experimenting. I based my recipe on those for whole, unripe fig preserves. I feel fortunate that I live in a time when I can find information at the touch of my finger through the internet. Other, more pioneering women, had only their intuition and experience to go by in these circumstances.

So, a recipe for unripe fig jam. How does that help you? It doesn't, that is unless you also happen to have a fig tree in your backyard. However, we all have things come to us for which we have no idea how to handle, cook, repair or use. We could discard these freebies. However, the process of doing, creating, and improvising forges pathways in our minds, propelling us onto new horizons and handling new challenges. And that's what makes the human experience extraordinary, in my opinion. After all, as humans, we would never make any progress if we didn't try something new.



You'll find this post, and many others like it, just a click away on this page -- a compilation of my recipes, shopping lists, and menu plans that illustrates how I feed my family of 4 adults on $125 to $135 per month.

Just "normalizing" a frugal practice

I had one jar left of the kind of peanut butter that I think makes the best (crispiest) peanut butter cookies. My plan had been to save this jar for cookies, so I tucked it in the back recesses of the pantry.

One afternoon, last week, I mixed the dough and set it in the fridge until the next day when I had time to bake it all.

I took great care to make my peanut butter cookie balls just perfectly sized. I smashed them with a fork, just right, bake them at the proper temperature. My plans were good, but in practice, it just didn't work out.

I burned the bottoms of 2 trays of peanut butter cookies! Ouch!

So, what does a frugal person do with burnt cookie bottoms? Well, I got out a sharp knife and began scraping the burned portions off. I ended up with a pile of burnt crumbs, maybe 2 cookies worth of crumbs. I was sorely disappointed in the burnt cookies, but I did what I could to salvage them. Fortunately, I'm not related to any really picky eaters! ;-)

This is normal, right? You'd scrape the bottoms of burnt cookies, too, right? Just trying to normalize some of the frugal, but sensible, things that frugal folks do.

Saving seeds for next year's garden

parsley plant, gone to seed

Last week, I spent a fair amount of time cleaning up the vegetable garden. In ding so, I found ti was time to collect the seeds from my parsley plant. In spring, when planting seeds, I discovered I was out of parsley seeds. So, I chose to let one of 2014-seeded parsley plants go to seed. (Parsley is a biennial, the first year it has a full season, the second year it comes back early, then goes to seed mid to late season.)

Letting a plant go to seed does look less than tidy, for a couple of months. But it is the way to obtain free seeds for the next year.

I think I collected enough parsley seeds to seed a football field! And in the process of collecting them, I probably free-seeded my herb garden with next year's parsley. Later this week, I'll do a germination test on a few of those seeds, so I can determine their viability, and whether or not I'll need to buy parsley seeds next year.

You know how to check for viability/germination in seeds? Place 10 seeds in a folded paper towel, napkin or tissue. Wet the napkin/towel with water till damp. Place into a plastic ziploc bag and seal closed. Leave this in a warm spot (on the fridge top, on the tumble dryer, on an old big-back television, any spot that stays around 70-80 degrees). Check every 2 to 3 days, sprinkling the towel with water, as needed, to keep damp. Note the days till germination for your own planting purposes next spring. Most seeds will germinate within 2 to 3 weeks, some in as few as 4 or 5 days (cabbage family seeds germinate quickly). If after 2-3 weeks, only 3 of the 10 seeds have sprouted, then you have roughly a 30% germination rate for the remainder of your seeds. 70 to 80% germination is considered good. But a lesser percentage of germination is still usable. You simply need to seed more thickly to account for the less than ideal germination rate. So, my own germination rate will 1) tell me if I collected the seeds in time, and whether or not the seeds had time to mature, and 2) what my germination rate is likely to be in spring, for determining how thickly to plant my parsley.

I'm still waiting for the beet seeds, from the 2 beets that I allowed to set seeds, to fully mature. I may have to cover those plants with a row cover, to give them as much time to mature without rotting, as possible.

collected parsley seeds, in a junk mail envelope

I store my saved seeds, in junk mail envelopes, in a glass jar, in the fridge. I add those little silica gel packets, that come in vitamin bottles, to the seed jar, as a precaution, to reduce moisture in the jar.

And in case you don't already know this, you don't want to collect seeds from hybrid plants. Many tomato plants that you buy at the nursery are hybrids, for example. Collected seeds from a hybrid won't remain true to that hybrid. (However, when one of my hybrid tomatoes has self-seeded in the mulch, and a random tomato plant has erupted in my garden, I still leave it there and collect any tomatoes from it that it wants to give me.)

I like to go through all of my seeds, now, at the end of the gardening, season. It gives me a chance to pick up any packets of seeds on clearance, barter/exchange seeds with friends, and plan for the next planting season, so I am free to start my seeds, next spring (or winter), whenever I am ready. If the winter is indeed a mild one, as has been forecasted for my area, then I could be able to start seeds indoors (to plant out later), as early as late January.