Instructions
If you need convincing about the benefits of having great neighbours then fig season should do the trick. Forget the cups of sugar, the last-minute child-minding, the glasses of wine over the fence, or even the patient ear when things go wrong.
No, truly a neighbourly friendship shows itself best when fig season comes along. A fig given is a true act of love!
Fig season is still a little way off in our patch of the world, but that’s the whole point. An effective fig campaign will require preparation, planning and perseverance. You have just a couple of months to lay the essential groundwork.
First step: find a neighbour with a fig tree. This will undoubtedly help.
Step two: fire up the oven, you’re about to drop in with an unexpected batch of homemade cookies.
Step three: wait until they’re mowing the lawn, or pruning, and saunter pass casually to observe that the fig tree is looking particularly fine this season. ‘Expecting a bumper crop, eh?’
With the groundwork done, follow up regularly with polite enquiries about the health of their elderly dog or that of their sister in London, and possibly polish the deal with a second baking contribution: brownies are always a winner. All you need then are some occasional observations about the beauty of fresh figs, and it’s done!
Come Christmas you’ll find yourself inundated with a basket of the freshest, plumpest, sweetest figs ever. Each succulent bite is worth the effort.
To satisfy your cravings in the meantime, Northern Territory figs have started for the year and they are fantastic. In fact figs have two season each year – Summer’s figs on the past year’s growth (breba), and a second Autumnal crop on the new growth (olynth).
Botanists will tell you that figs are not in fact a fruit, but rather an inflorescence, or flower clump – tastier than a gerbera, that’s for sure. Black figs will reproduce hermaphroditically, but most green figs require the services of a fig wasp for pollination. Without it, the flower will remain inedible.
So your most important job, between now and the end of the year is this. If you see wasps in the backyard, resist the temptation to reach for the insect spray. Because with them, your sweetness (both in the oven and in person) may come to nought.
Barbecued mushrooms with fig and bresaola