One perfect, ripe fig from our tree signals autumn more truely than the weather. We have lurched from first fire of the winter, back to warm and muggy, with the flies having a fiesta in this balmy warmth after the first real winter rains. But the fruit trees tell it like it is.Our first guavas are ripe too. Youngest likes to eat them straight off the tree and pleads with me not to cook them all up for guava fool, which is one of my son and his Dad’s favourite winter desserts...favourite any time of the year puddings really, as from now until the end of the season I’ll be stewing and puréeing any extra fruit to put in the freezer for Christmas, New Year and any other excuse for celebration. I’m not allowed to reveal the recipe, as it is the intellectual property of my husband’s family! Suffice it to say that it is a fool made with guavas, in a similar method to gooseberry or rhubarb fool – slightly tart fruit purée stirred together with a creamy, custardy mix to a thick custard consistency. And that description gives you no idea of the indescribable flavour, fresh and enticing, of guavas. There should really be a picture of a guava rather than a fig, seeing as the whole post ended up about guavas. I’ll try to do one tomorrow and add it in.
Your descriptions alone of these fruits have me drooling let alone teasing us with the cherished family recipe. I am thinking of that old English nursery rhyme "figgy pudding". :)
ReplyDeleteMy captain crunch cereal I just ate doesn't seem to compare! Beautiful wording and description. Thanks for stopping by my blog - have a great day!
ReplyDeleteOh! The memories this fig brought. I live in a very cold climate. Fig trees do not survive here. However, we did have several fig trees while my father was alive. Fig trees that we buried into four feet deep ditches every fall and dug up at the end of every April when the snow finally stopped falling. Tremendous work, only to savour a fresh fig....
ReplyDeleteIt was very symbolic that my father actually had his final CVA at the end of September, when the last family members left at the end of his grape harvest and he was picking his beautiful purple figs and feeding my mother.....
The snows came fast and furious that fall and I could not save the fig trees. But I do have sweet memories of my father's determination, hard work and wonderful life lessons.......
oh dear... figs... naahh... guavas... YES YES YES! Suffice to say as you are probably aware they do not feature very highly here in the UK. I actually prefer mine stewed or canned... guavas and custard... ooohhh... I get the pleasure of paying ALOT of pennies for a tin all the way from SA but then I do not have to share them with my kids... their colourful language is enough to give me the idea that they DO NOT EVER INTEND to let these fruit pass their lips!
ReplyDeleteFigs in your garden... you are so lucky! If and when I make it back to SA I will definitely plant a fig tree and an avocado tree. Guavas however... no thanks. I have textural issues with them!! Funny thing is that I ate them as a kid. I grew up Afrikaans will I went to school at 6 and only knew them as koejawels, the Afrikaans name. One day when I was about four, another relative handed me some fruit from the fruit bowl. I bit into it and asked what it was - she replied a guava. I replied (in Afrikaans) "oh, that's funny, this guava tastes just like a koejawel!" Priceless.
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