Emilia's Fresh Fig Jam

Our friend Annette and her family share a beautiful property near Vancouver, with two special fig trees in the backyard.

Annette's mother, Maria Emilia, has owned the lot for decades and have given great care to her trees.  A few years ago, I was given some figs, which of course I turned into jam (that is, after I ate more than my share, straight up.)  As a token of gratitude, I gave Emilia a few jars of jam and this started a friendly exchange that I hope will go on for some time. 

To be invited to pick figs is a privilege that I look forward to every year and we were lucky to climb up the trees once again this summer.

Biting into a fresh green fig that you picked off the branch yourself is one of my absolute favourite things about summer, followed closely by making jam from green figs that you and your friends picked that very morning. 

If you are a fan of strawberry jam, chances are you will appreciate fresh fig jam.  The flavour is completely different from the more widely available dried fig jam and, though we kept a few bigger fig slices for a chunkier spoonful, the texture is similar to that of berry jam, soft and smooth that is.  

Needless to say, this fig jam is "limited edition". Whatever we picked that day was turned into "Emilia's Fresh Fig Jam, " though we couldn't help but play around in the pantry and turned a couple of pots of fig jam into our "Caramelized Fig Jam with Orange and Spice" by adding a touch of orange zest, a bit of almond extract and a combination of spices that includes cinnamon and cardamom.

We are currently waiting on labels, but we promise to let you know as soon as the jam is ready for sale --- you may not want to miss out on this one.