WonDerLust painted Photos

I give you photographer and artist Alexandra Valenti::

http://www.alexandravalenti.com/

Pick Your Jam

A sweet summer favorite, fresh fig preserves. I had been searching for months to find a suitable fig tree to pluck, putting a bug in friends ears, posting regularly to Facebook trying to find a tree. And then, it simply fell into my lap. I was visiting momma bee in Roebuck and she mentioned her neighbor posting on their community page about some ripe fig trees ready to be picked. In return, the owner simply requested a jar of fig preserves?! The trees had to be 30 years old, and it begins. 

This preserve uses whole figs that have their stems removed but I keep their skins because I like them. If you are not a big fan of the fruit's skin, then by all means peel them off with a paring knife. 

Ingredients: 
25-30 figs1 cup organic cane sugar 
1-2 long sticks of cinnamon broken into two (or a BIG pinch of cinnamon) 
Juice of one lemon and zest of one lemon
One lemon thinly sliced, with rind

It's just this simple: 
Wash the figs and then cut them in quarters. Place them in a thick bottomed pan, sprinkle the sugar and lemon juice over it, throw in the two pieces of cinnamon and keep it on a low flame for about 25-30 mins. Cover it for the first 10-15 mins, but keep checking on how fast it cooks. There is no need to add water (rookie mistake)  The lemon juice and sugar work well enough for this. You can go ahead and add the thinly sliced lemons at this point. Once the figs start to break up, stir them a bit, if there are very large chunks of figs, break it down gently with a fork and continue cooking it till it all done and there is not much liquid remaining.

Sterilise the jars that you will be storing the jam in (you can boil them). Once the fig preserve has cooled down, transfer it to the jar and store in the refrigerator. Eat every day for two weeks! Then make some more. 

- Carrie Fagan