Throughout the beginning of September, my friend Albert kept tweeting about all the figs he was picking throughout the city. While I’m a big fan of urban gleaning (and I LOVE figs), during those weeks leading up to the wedding, I just didn’t have time to run around town, looking for fruit. Happily, Albert and I settled upon a plan. He’d bring some of his scavenged figs to my place and I’d teach him how to make jam with them. Then we’d split the fruits of our labors.
It was a fun early evening project and it was a kick to do a private jam tutorial. You can find the recipe we used at the bottom of this post.
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The photo you see above is the final harvest from my teeny, tiny garden plot that I’d mostly abandoned over the last month. My tomatillo plan seemed to really like the cooler days of fall and suddenly exploded with growth. It gave me pangs to rip it out, but sadly, with the first frost coming, it had to go. I have pickling plans for all those green tomatoes and I’m excited for the hot peppers!
Chunky Fig Jam
Ingredients
- 4 pounds fresh figs chopped
- 4 cups granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons powdered pectin
- 4 tablespoons bottled lemon juice
Instructions
- Prepare a boiling water bath and necessary jars.
- Heap the chopped figs in a large, non-reactive pan. Whisk together the sugar and pectin and add to the figs. Stir well to combine. Let the figs sit until the sugar begins to pull the juice from the fruit.
- When the mixture starts to look quite juicy, place the pot over high heat and bring to an low boil.
- Cook for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until the figs have started to break down and the liquid begins to thicken.
- Add the lemon juice return the figs to an active boil for 5 minutes. When you’re satisfied with the set, remove the pot from the heat.
- Funnel the jam into the prepared jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
- When the time is up, remove the jars and set them on a folded kitchen towel to cool. When the jars have cooled enough that you can comfortably handle them, check the seals. Sealed jars can be stored at room temperature for up to a year. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used promptly.
So what do you do with all those tomatillos? Especially all the unripe ones? Just wondering – since my bowl of unripe tomatillos is about 5x the size of your bowl!
~daisy
I made a terrific tomatillo sauce earlier in the season from a recipe on food network. (The fig jam looks great as well.)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/chicken-pepian-recipe/index.html
Can’t wait to see what you do with those green tomatoes. I have a whole bunch of them outside on my plants right now, and I’m hoping some of them will at least start to ripen before the first frost. But it’s a gambling game!
oh how wonderful that i just stumbled on your site!!!
i love it. can’t wait to follow.
I realize this thread is 6 years old, but does anyone know if the Messyandpicky website is still active? I used the fig jam recipie last year and it was such a hit, my husband wants it again! I tried the link, but it’s not working. ?
I think their site may now be defunct. However, here’s a link to the pictures from Albert’s post. Here’s my best guess at the recipe we made that day: 3.5 pounds of figs, 1.5 pounds of sugar, and the juice of at least two lemons (though these days when working with figs, I’d use bottled lemon juice, since their acidity is a little low). Boil for 20-25 minutes, until the volume reduces by at least 1/3 (and closer to 1/2). Fill jars, wipe rims, apply lids and rings, and process in a bwb for 10 minutes.