July is Fig Time in South Louisiana

It is often said that the figs begin to ripen around July fourth in South Louisiana. I was very concerned about our crop since we had been experiencing a drought. Many of our figs were not as full as usual, but we are getting a decent harvest.

In order to harvest our crop, we get up early in the morning and pick some before the birds eat all of the ripe figs. We pick again in late afternoon. We have some for ourselves and some to bring to the Farmers' Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

I love fig preserves and cook some with the whole figs and some with the figs chopped. We do have a tree that produces very large figs and I usually chop these. I personally prefer the chopped fig preserves. Often when filling the jars, I have a little left over syrup. I like to take this syrup and use it to make a pecan pie.

Gabrielle's Pecan and Fig Juice Pie

3 fresh farm eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup fig syrup
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup pecans
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell

Beat eggs thorougly with sugar. Add fig syrup and melted butter and mix. Fold in pecans. Pour into pie shell and bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes. Lower oven to 300 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. Cool before cutting. Enjoy!!