Fig extravaganza

A friend at work gave me a gallon of figs. I LOVE figs! But they start to go over in two days. I had a lot of cooking to do! First, I ate about ten right away. Yum.

I made fig muffins for the first time and that was a success. I doubled the recipe and brought a bunch to school and gave away to friends.

Today I made fig preserves. All that means is you chop figs, put in pan with sugar and other spices you want (I added cinnamon and salt and lemon juice) and simmer it down until it's thick to your preference. I halved the figs because I like chunky preserves.

I chose not to sterilize the jars and preserve them on the shelf for long term because I understand it is not good to re-use the lids. You have to make sure to get a good seal and re-using them will not ensure that. (I'm not speaking of the rings, they can be reused). I made enough preserves to fill three little jars and gave one away to a friend. I do enjoy a fig preserve and cream cheese sandwich now and then. Mental note: put cream cheese on the grocery list.

This morning's breakfast was scrambled eggs and figs, another good dish I enjoy cooking and eating.You would not think to put figs in an egg dish or use them for breakfast but there ya go. Figs are versatile. I didn't have the heart to use the rest of the figs in the preserve because I like fresh figs so much. I kept back about 20 more figs, but I'm on day two and there isn't much more time to eat the rest. Get ready for some fiber, stomach, it is coming your way.

Today's Bountiful Basket was super. Watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, raspberries, papaya, apples, carrots, onions, red potatoes, peppers, French eggplant. I haven't had eggplant in a while because the local store doesn't sell it. I'm excited about the two I received in the basket, and I also have on hand some garden tomatoes. I see something Italian in the future.

It's a hot day but thankfully the humidity is down, and the overnight temps have cooled off to the mid 60s, which makes for a very pleasant morning. I listened to Gospel quartets all morning and wrote and relaxed. Very nice start to the weekend! I hope you all have a wonderful day as well.

My morning walk around the yard was productive

The dew was deep this morning and the air was cool. I love it when the days dawn cooler than 70 degrees, it makes for such a fresh morning. I took a walk around the yard to see what is blooming these days, of course taking my trusty broom with me to ninja-bust the huge spiderwebs. Just as I am invigorated by a dewy cool morning, so are the spiders.

The blue hydrangeas are going gangbusters now:

As you can see, they are huge. And very blue.

The chickens came back. I'd heard a weird sound nearby my open window. It sounded like a baby squirrel being taken, or a child's cry at the playground across the street, but not quite either. I heard it several times, so I got up to investigate. There was a flock of chickens under my window. This group was bigger than the few that had pecked their way across my yard the other day, Apparently they went home and got friends. I grabbed my camera but when I opened the door they scattered from under the window to the middle of the yard, and then quickly made their way to the hay field line and nibbled their way gone.

As I tracked them to the edge of the yard I checked on the fig tree. Some figs are ready! I picked about a dozen good and big ones. They were high up but I had my broom to grab a branch and swing it down. The smaller ones at eye level will be ready any day. I am going to have scrambled eggs with freshly picked figs for breakfast, with a side of blueberry muffin I'd made a few days ago.

All in all, a good morning so far!

FIgeater beetles and wasps and bees, oh my!

Figs are coming in. The tree grows quickly and its fruit production is prodigious. If I don't get out there each day and strip the tree, there will wind up being more fruit than I know what do do with. It is a nice problem to have, after the last couple of years' dearth of edible fruit.

But I don't get out there every day and as a result, the over-ripened fruit gets mushy and then drops to the ground. When it's high noon and hot I don't dare go out there and pick, having to run a gauntlet of wasps, bees and flies feasting on the dropped fruits on the ground.

Today it rained hard for a short while. As the clouds dissipated and the last drips were dropping from the awnings I decided to go out there before the sun came on full hot. I brought my bag and happily sauntered across a freshly rained-upon yard. I got to the fig tree and stopped short. Covering almost every ripe fruit was a cluster of neon green beetles, and buzzing around the ripe fruits on the tree were huge wasps and bees. I had to look carefully at every angle of the fig before I picked it to make sure I wouldn't get stung from some insect that beat me to it first. As I looked around at the scene I also noticed fig-mush. The hard rain must have punctured the softer fruits and dropped what I crassly term "fig poop" over the lower leaves.

As I looked even closer I just got grossed out. The beetles were having an orgy of eating, sometimes clustered up on one another. Ewwww. What is going onnn?

Of course I took a bunch of photos. and I picked my fill of non-bug infested figs, and scurried back into the house. Once again it is proved to me that IN is better than OUT. LOL. I am a techno-geek and not a nature girl that is for sure.

I looked it up. I googled 'fig,' 'beetle' and 'eating'. The Google result was "figeater beetle." I love Google!!

Here is what I learned. It is not a figeater. The American West has the Figeater and the American East has the Green June Beetle, and apparently they are a dickens to tell apart. I believe that since the range of the Green June Beetle is Maine to Georgia that that is what I have on my hands.

Here is info on the (West) figeater from The Firefly Forest blog:

"With their beautiful metallic green coloration, large size (more than 1 inch or 2.5 cm long), and loud, buzzing, bumblebee-like flight, Figeater Beetles (Cotinis mutabilis, formerly C. texana) are some of the most conspicuous beetles found here in the Sonoran Desert. Adult Figeater Beetles emerge in the summertime, and they are especially common during the wetter, more humid summer monsoon season in July and August."

Oklahoma State Etymology Department says of the Green June Beetle:
"Adult beetles damage fruit by feeding on ripening fruits. Beetles gain entry into undamaged fruits by gouging with the horn on the front of the head, then feed on the flesh of the fruit. Several beetles may bury themselves entirely in a ripe peach. Their odor and excrement ruins most pieces of fruit they visit even if feeding damage is not severe. "

Makes me want to run out and collect a bunch more! Not.

Now the fun part, the photos!! Click on them for larger view. I named the .jpg Figeater before I learned that it is a Green June Beetle. I'm too lazy to re-save them all under a new name. You were warned.

Mr Busy Bee:

 Green June Beetle having a feast. His mouth is full!

 It's a party!

As I watched this guy he used his front leg to move the entire pile of fig mush closer to his mouth. Glutton!

There were flies, Green June Beetles, flies, and I think larva on their underbelly. Ew.

Hey, guys, leave some for me!

Phew, flowers. Now that's pretty.

A rose from the bush. There are always one or two blooming. Ahhh, so nice.

Lesson #1: Always look before you pluck the fruit
Lesson #2: Always take your camera out with you. I had to go back in and get mine. Fortunately the bugs were too soporific with gluttony to have flown off. If it was a bird, I would have missed it.

Some things I like about summer

Summer means:

Reality TV: (Duck Dynasty and Food Network Star and Design Star). Guilty luxuries but hey, they're rated G! I love that the next morning I can scan the blogs and recaps and comments and commentaries. A time waster for sure.

Birds: lots and lots and lots of them at dawn. I love my yard. I live that I love where it is quiet enough to hear them through even my hazy waking up veil of sleep.

Big breakfasts: today it will be pancakes. A second pot of coffee if I feel like it. Carefully scanning the online ad in making my grocery list with steaming cuppa joe next to my notepad. Little things that keep me functioning but pleasurable to be able to take the time in doing them.

Flowers: I threw some morning glory seeds around last year that I'd dried. The ones I threw at the base of the large tree out front took. Now there are pure white morning glories almost as big as a bush climbing up the south side of the trunk and when the afternoon sun sets it lights them up so brightly! Gorgeous!

Blogs: Searching out bloggers worth reading. I like blogs that feature lots of photography, the kind where they post big pictures of birds or their kids or their farm and I don't have to read a lot. I read all day, by the time for leisure arrives I just like looking at pretty or nice things..

Facebook: As stated so succinctly on The Big Bang Theory:
"Leonard Hofstadter: I thought you hated Facebook.
Sheldon Cooper: Don't be silly. I approve of anything that replaces human interaction."

It's true. I can stay engaged without fear of being suddenly hugged. I love reading the witticisms from my friends, like this "It's summer and the weather is getting hot. Girls of Madison County High School: You can't fit 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound bag."

Or this:

"This status goes out to all of my friends who might get a job out of high school because they didnt post nasty status updates & pictures of them smoking a blunt."

Photos: My friend Jeanne used to drill it into me when I was editing the newspaper, "Pictures, pictures, pictures! And make them big." I love looking at even unknown people' photos of anything, family, birds, landscapes...but I always forget to post photos on my blog! That's gonna stop, right now.

O made my pass around the property this morning while the dew was still glistening. I checked the figs, the birdhouses, the magnolias, enjoyed the hayfield and the birds flitting over it.

Summer!

Summer in my yard

I think the finest thing about summer, and there are many fine things, is to sit quietly in my chair by the window, reading, listening to the birds nearby and the train in the distance, the day waking up with each turn of the page.

That old comedian Roseanne might claim to be the "Domestic goddess" but I definitely am "Domestic Disaster." I don't know why the simplest domestic things confound me, but they do. This week I was taking a shower. I never take baths. Occasionally, the drain gets to draining slow, and you either put vinegar and baking soda down it or Drano, depending on how slow it gets to draining. I noticed this time that the water wasn't draining at all, but quickly rising over my feet, and on up to the ankles. "That's a lot of water," I thought. "The drain must be really stopped up." When I finished I watched to see if it would drain at all, and it wasn't. "How did it get so stopped up?" I wondered. "It wasn't even going slow yesterday. Maybe there is a stoppage in the system from the kitchen pipe or something." I could not attend to it then, It was Sunday and I needed to get to church. On the way home I bought Drano and a plunger. Plunging the drain yielded nothing. I plunged harder. Nothing, Then harder. I broke the plunger. Yet the drain yielded no drainage. I poured half a bottle of extra strength Draino and left if for half an hour. Nothing.

It was then I'd noticed the drain toggle was "UP". I don't know how that happened. I'm like the absent-minded professor or something, nose always in a book while the house burns down around me, belatedly looking up to ask, "Why are all the firemen here?"

Speaking of Roseanne, I'd stumbled across her new show last night. I didn't recognize her at all at first. I knew the voice was vaguely familiar, but didn't notice that she was the same woman as the one from the show from the 1980s for a few minutes. But I did get annoyed that she swore so much. Literally, every other word had to be bleeped. And this was in a speech where was sharing about how her philosophical outlook had changed during the time she was in Hollywood, and became afraid she was going to hell. That was what caught my attention at first. "Oh, good, a testimony" I thought. She spoke of moving to Hawaii and buying a nut farm. I don't know where she's headed but whichever it is the path toward it will be littered with profanity. I clicked the channel.

The field next door turns a pretty lilac-to-magenta color in mid-summer. Clumps of grass blades of a deep purple mixed in with the yellow and orange an the green make for a colorful array.

It's these guys that make it look purple:

The figs are getting ripe, as are the apples and the pears. Yummy times ahead.

Summer's a-going...

What a great day! The sun was partly hidden half the day behind fluffy clouds, which helped the heat index quite a bit. The humidity was lower and there was a breeze. I think the high temp today stayed below 90. This morning it was positively cool so I quickly baked a blueberry cobbler and steamed a bunch of veggies for supper (to have with brown rice and Asian sauce). Then I did the dishes, in hot water, no less!

The pears are ripe so I picked about 30 pounds of those, and about 5 pounds of apples. I also gathered a huge bag of figs. Inside again, I washed them all and the pears will be set to finish ripening at a friend's and the apples, we will prepare for drying on Friday. The figs will be bagged and frozen.

The cobbler came out great, and with the minor exception of accidentally setting my dish cloth on fire and searing my finger on the metal slider all went well. LOL, I am really a domestic disaster...

Church tonight and then television and reading my new book. A good summer day of one of the last summer days...before SCHOOOOOOLLLLLLL!

Figs are in!

The figs are ripe! I wrote before about finding a fig tree on my property. I love figs, and since they are such a delicate fruit and therefore so little shipped, I am thrilled to be able to go out and pluck to my heart's content. Many of the figs are ripe enough to eat now, so after hanging laundry (the line is next to the fig tree) I started picking.

I heard an angry bird squawking on the wires above the street and knew that a baby was about, somewhere. Ha ha, I have thoroughly learned that lesson! None were visible at that moment however. So I made my way around the interior of the tree, picking and dropping gently into my shirt held away from my body and gathered like a handkerchief. Then I saw him. The nest was just above, and he was stock still on a branch, huddling and shaking. Poor baby! I said that I would be out of there tout sweet, but snapped this photo first. His mom swooped in a moment later and I shot a pic of her too.




Tonight's dinner will be light since I ate with friends and had salmon and potatoes and fresh tomato salad for lunch. Dinner: sliced, chilled figs atop grilled slices of very thin smoked ham (not prosciutto, but I wish!). Grilled hunks of crusty whole wheat specialty bread drizzled with olive oil. Accompanied by iced green tea and a compote of blackberries and blueberries. Yum!! Living off the land. Almost.

Speaking of that, the apples and pears are coming in. I'm picking pears tomorrow for my friend, the one who has picked and given so many blueberries to me. I mean, huge quantities of blueberries, she picked 45 quarts worth. I was on the receiving end of 10 quarts. We are in a barter economy now. I have a lot of pears to pick to make an even barter!

Sigh. Next week is the last week of summer. August 3 I start school, and since I am a long-term sub in a pre-K, the principal wants me at the pre-planning meetings as staff. That's Monday, Aug. 3 and the kids come in August 6.

To Sir with Love!