The fig lady, mustang grapes, and the farmers market

I. Figs:

The fig lady called this week. We are both pretty busy and had to coordinate our "deal." She called yesterday, just after I had negotiated with a friend for some mustang grapes.* Once again we met in the drug store parking lot and made the exchange (12 lbs of figs!).

I wonder what other "deals" are made at the back of this parking lot.

My treasure. You can see why I had to try some.

The figs are large and beautiful this year. By that I mean the usually small (thumb tip sized) brown lovelies are more quarter-sized and much less battered. Perhaps the temporary end of the drought** has given insects other sources of moisture and food. Whatever the case, I could not help myself and helped myself to a few raw figs. Amazing.

They rest in the frig until later today when I will clear a space, find the jars, and make the preserves using the recipe my grandmother and mother passed down to me (it is in another post I think, but if you cannot find it, let me know and I will add it). I may be the last fig maker in our family.

Wait, I forgot that my youngest discovered figs a few years ago. One day I may show her how to make the preserves. It's not hard, but requires patience. It also requires keeping an eye out for fig trees and making friends with the owners. That has seemed to come more easily in recent years.***

II. Mustang Grapes:

Driving south from our town through the countryside you pass Sand and Gravel Lane, a spread with giant longhorns atop the gate, and a river bridge so crowded with native pecan trees that you cannot tell how much water is flowing (but I am sure it is flowing at a good rate) before turning off just before the old mill on the creek.

Really! What can I say?

The mill - thought you might want to see it.

The mill and extensive property all around is a conference, retreat, and horse farm  complex. It is green and beautiful and a friend, who boards her horse there, noticed wild mustang grapes growing along the fence.**** After asking permission of someone in charge ("Since I have no idea what you are talking about, sure, you can pick them.") arrived with three plastic gallon bags.

Beautiful morning.

Wildflowers growing against a post.

Mustang grapes

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Three bags full.

I had permission, but I was being watched.

It has been 23 years or so since I made grape jelly. I remember my son taking a jar to school in the first or second grade to do a "taste test." It was me versus Welch's. The children were biased, or polite. My jelly won by a landslide.

We made so much jelly that year that I didn't want to see a grape for a long, long time. And I guess 23 years is long enough to wait.

III. Farmers Market:

On the way home from gathering grapes, I stopped at the farmers market for tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and basil. One of my favorite farmers was there, helping out a friend who was out of town and couldn't run his table. He asked if I had given him tomato preserves last year. Well, yes, I probably had.

I make tomato preserves every year. Mom always made them for Dad. We kids thought they were disgusting, but I enjoy have a jar now. So I make one batch every year...just to have the smell in the kitchen and enjoy a few preserves - on buttered saltines or in a turkey sandwich or on toast. And I usually give the extra jars away to friends.

This friend asked for the recipe**** so we exchanged email addresses and I brought him some of last year's figs. He tried to pay (honestly, after giving me all those tomatoes!). "Oh, no! I have to clear my shelf for this year's preserves," I said. And selling them would mean it was work. I can fruit for therapy. It is productive, fairly mindless, and remembrance therapy.

Just look at those tomatoes! Of course I forgot the name (watch the comments section if you are curious). They are a grape variety, but look like a baby Roma.

Time to get to work. Photos of preserves to follow.


NOTES:

*The grapes are growing on a fence where she keeps her horse. It is a beautiful place - worth the trip just to see it. The grapes are a bonus. It would have been nice (and poetic) had the horses included some mustangs, but I fear not.  http://www.foragingtexas.com/2008/08/grape-mustang.html

**It was the rainiest May on record. Our lakes are full. As I have driven across the state I have found the rivers full - fuller than I ever remember.

***I have found figs almost everywhere I go - a tree on the banks of the Corrib - one behind a restaurant on the Frio - one at the corner of a friend's house back home, three at the Toast's house (and one on the way there). Perhaps it is just that I have looked for them for so long that I ignore all else.

****

Tomato Preserve Recipe

(based on the Ball recipe - just eliminate the spices)

• 4 cups sugar (I like to use much less sugar in proportion to fruit)
• 2 medium lemons (unpeeled), seeded and thinly sliced (I use only a couple of tablespoons of juice and may just slice 1 lemon and throw it in when the tomatoes are cooking.
• 3/4 cup water (I adjust this depending on how juicy the tomatoes are. For Roma types I would use 1/2 Cup of water)
• 6 cups peeled small yellow, green or red tomatoes

Cook until they thicken. Pour into sterilized jars. Adjust canning lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. The lids will seal as the jars cool. If one doesn't seal, process again or just put it in the refrigerator and eat those first.