In Season: Fresh Figs

The fig tree beside my garage apartment... it teases me. Everyday I walk by it's lush green foliage. In the summer, the tree produces a plethora of tiny green fruits. Tiny, green, perpetually unripe fruit. I wait for their skin to darken. But, at some point, the birds will descend. They'll be hardly any trace of them left, save for one or two strays under a leaf. I'm left with the nagging feeling that if I could protect them, I would eventually have delicious plump figs.

I've since discovered that some varieties of our localized figs never ripen. Also, neglecting to fertilize and water the trees on a regular basis can contribute to immature fruit.

So to stay at my current, comfortable level of plant neglect, I'm going to go with the theory that the garage apartment's fig tree just isn't able to bare ripened fruit. Because otherwise it's gorgeous and appears to be healthy. You know, too pretty and healthy to need anymore attention from me! Luckily, it's July and I can get fresh purple figs from the farmers market. I usually buy them from Gunderman Farms since they tend to have the biggest and plumpest. This year I've seen smaller LSU purple figs from other vendors. I bet they're tasty too.

The following is a classic way to serve figs as an appetizer or dessert. It's so easy I'm sort of embarrassed to present it as a recipe. Since it's so fast and non-fussy it's a great, elegant extra for any night of the week.

I think the savoriness of blue cheese would make this a great appetizer . Otherwise, I serve it as a dessert using plain goat cheese. My tip for for Houstonians: use Blue Heron Farm's Perfectly Plain Chevre with local honey drizzled on top. Beautiful.


Fresh Figs with Soft Cheese

4-6 large fresh figs cut in half long ways
Small log of goat cheese or a small wedge of blue cheese
Honey to drizzle

Prepare figs on a plate with cut side facing up. On each fig, add a dollop of cheese. Drizzle with honey. Serves 4 as a light dessert / appetizer