You can recognize fig trees pretty easily by their large, green palmate leaves (and, of course, by the fruit itself).
As I noted in a previous blog post, you can dehydrate the leaves and make a delicious, healthful herbal tea from them. You can also eat the figs raw, right off the tree (though it's better to wash them first, just to be safe). The sweetest figs I've found growing in New Orleans ripen to a soft purple.
These have a sweet, light taste and a rich texture, almost like biting into a ripened peach.
My absolute favorite way to eat foraged figs, however, is to partially dehydrate them. I put them in my food dehydrator just long enough that they are warm and beginning to ooze some of their sweet liquid, and then I eat them. The short (about 1-2 hours) dehydration makes them taste sweeter.
If I buy figs, I tend to buy them dried––they taste sweeter and keep longer. I also cook with dried figs rather than raw ones. One of my favorite recipes is a slow-cooked pot roast with dried figs. You can find the recipe here (just substitute dried figs for the dried fruit). Very healthy and delicious.
Happy foraging!
you mention in a couple of spots to wash the fruit first... and while if its foraged, it might sound like a good idea, i actually see no reason to do so (unless its been on the ground, or has some visible dirt on it).
ReplyDeleteThe reason i even mention this, is that ive read our ancestors actually got most of their B12 from eating foods which were not thoroughly washed... B12 comes from bacteria. and since our water is fluoridated, and foods washed, the only source we now have is meat, and i am vegan.
Incidentally, i have started a permaculture food-forest in my yard, to show people they can grow a percent of their food.
Even a small percent (a couple of fruit trees and, say, a basil and tomato) can reduce the damage done to our soils, climate etc...
it reduces labor, storage, refrigeration, transportation, losses etc...
As does foraging :)