Fig Spread

Our fig trees produced a lot of figs this year.

Putting up preserves is a big deal, if you want to store them and eat them later. I just cooked the batch up, and will keep it in the refrigerator.

Chop the figs in quarters. In a sauce pan, add a little wine, sugar to taste, cinnamon and thinly sliced lemons. Ginger would be good too.

Gently boil, stirring frequently. Keep it at a low flame (1 or 2 on the induction top) and stir frequently to prevent burning. 

At some point, you can use the immersion blender.

It turns amber and eventually cooks way down. The second batch I made, I didn't cook at as high a temp (as described above) and it didn't burn, but it also didn't turn amber. Each kind of fig will have a different color palette.

Put the spread/jam in a glass jar so you can admire the contents!

Blackberry Cobbler

I predict we'll be making this often. Micah's blackberry bushes are producing prodigious amounts of lucious blackberries, and their ripening is staggered throughout the summer. It's pretty quick to pick a quart of blackberries in this orchard!

It's from a The HIllbilly Kitchen, a very simple concept!

Spray a flat ovenproof dish. I use a Dansk round metal casserole or a ceramic casserole.

Preheat oven to 375.

Lots of 1s in this recipe.

1 quart berries - splashed with 1 t. vanilla
1 egg
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup flour/s (any combination - you can include some oats)
1 cup sugar

Place the berries in the pan, splash the vanilla on them.

In a bowl, combine the flour, egg, and sugar until it's crumbly, with a big fork or fingers.

Drop it on the berries.

Pour the melted butter over the top. Sprinkle a little sugar on top (optional).

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Persimmon Picking & Pulping + Persimmon Bread

Micah spotted persimmon trees on the trail to the Gesher Tsar Meod, and in 2023 Jo, Micah, and I picked a bunch. Then he found an even bigger tree and I went with Jennifer Paget and we picked a half a pot full.

In 2025, on a day Micah spent doing chores and exploring in fall, he counted 17 persimmon-bearing trees along the trails! And, he brought home a huge collection, and learned that they continue to ripen, called climacteric fruits.

Today, I stopped by Fredi Cooper's house, which she is moving out of shortly, and she gave me a beautiful Nordic Ware loaf pan, with a pumpkin vine pattern. It would be perfect for baking a persimmon bread! Can't wait to try it.

in 2023, I purchased a vintage Foley Food Mill on Ebay and it worked wonderfully, though it's slow. Eventually you collect pulp, which you can eat as a kind of cross between jam and sauce. It's a beautiful color. The dark flecks in it are completely edible.

We baked three loaves with this recipe. It's dark and moist. Nice with cream cheese. You can use pumpkin pie spice in lieu of the cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves.

This recipe is from Feast Magazine, doubled.

2 1/2 c (175g) flour (1/2 each whole wheat and white is fine)
1 t baking soda
1 t  salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves
1 1/3 cup  sugar
4 eggs
2 t vanilla 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 c (260g) persimmon pulp

Preheat oven to 350˚F and spray pans. 

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a medium bowl; set aside. 

In a larger bowl, beat sugar, eggs and vanilla together until combined and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. With mixer running, stream in melted butter; continue to beat until incorporated, scraping sides of bowl down with a spatula as needed. Fold in persimmon pulp and mix until incorporated. 

Fold flour mixture into butter mixture just until combined, then fold in persimmon pulp until incorporated and no streaks remain. Divide between your pans.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating pan after 20 minutes of baking. Bread is done when a wooden skewer comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Set on wire rack to cool completely.

In 2025, I used Fredi's loaf pan and two pumpkin layers. Nordic Ware calls it the Great Pumpkin pan. They came out of the pan very easily. So pretty.

Main trick is using a lot of Bakers Joy spray, which is flour and oil already combined.