Figs

A plateful of delicious, juicy figs

One of my favorite fruit is a fig. However here in Eastern Oregon, they are as rare a polar bears and alligators. I over-indulged on them as a child where I had plenty of them to eat, mostly from a huge fig tree at my grandmother’s house. My job in the summer was to pick up as many as I could, filling as many as two buckets a day, besides the other bucket full that would end up in my stomach as I swung from branch to branch like a young Tarzan. 

Figs growing on a tree in Malta, including two young ones

Figs need an extended warm climate to grow, and since our growing season here in Baker City is only three months, it’s impossible to grow them. You can’t even find them in stores, except for the dried ones. Figs have more fiber per serving than any other fruit, and more anti-oxidants than red wine or tea. Besides they are also a biblical fruit, mentioned in the Bible on a few occasion, including the time when Jesus went looking for figs on a tree and found none.