A Single Fig Preserve

Tomorrow summer will end for me. I know that technically we still have over a month left but we all know that regardless of how beautiful it still is outside, once school starts, it’s really over.

One of my favorite things that we did this summer was to make our own fig preserves. We have sweet neighbors down the street who share their figs with us and for about two weeks we climb their trees and pick as many figs as we can. Then we bring them all home where we cook them down in lots of sugar and turn them into preserves.

Fig preserves are a big deal in my family. I don’t know if it's a southern thing or just my family but we don’t make strawberry or raspberry, we only make pear and fig.

My grandmother always made the fig preserves. She never chopped them into bits like you find in the grocery store. They were preserved whole in a thin golden syrup and they were divine!

Every summer, my cousin and I would go and stay for weeks in my grandparent’s house in northern Alabama and every night, before bed, my grandfather would always announce that it was time for a snack. We would all squeeze into their little kitchenette and wait while my grandfather set to work.