Made several jars of Concord jelly that taste really great, and a lot still remain on the vine for casual munching.
The Concords have done incredibly well in the cold and wet weather of the last week and a half. Hardly any have split, so I frequently find myself spending breaks heading out to the vine to snack on remaining clusters.
Fall figs were pretty good this year too. For the first time ever, my Ronde De Bordeaux’s actually ripened. Here’s one next to White Marseilles.
Both of these figs were very good. I was getting impatient with the RdB’s I have, so they saved themselves from an early and untimely demise.
The White Marseilles that ripened after that warm spell a couple weeks back were some of the sweetest figs I’ve ever eaten. However, with the cool & wet weather it becomes apparent that the RdB’s just taste horrible when the weather gets cold. Many have been ripening but they aren’t worth eating. As soon as it gets cold the sweetness really gets cut, and there is an addition of some odd grassy, almost bitter flavor. The White Marseilles don’t get the off flavor but they do just lose flavor altogether. Which brings me to another other first for this year - Chicago Hardy. I got a bunch of these to ripen. Apparently one of Chicago Hardy’s super powers is tasting great even when the weather cools down. They aren’t as sweet but still enjoyable to eat and don’t get nasty. Here’s a fig platter from Sunday:
Working clockwise from top right: Chicago Hardy x2, Grise De St. Jean (x1), Yellow Longneck (x1), RdB (x2), VdB (x2). Flavor-wise, consensus was that the ripest VdB was the winner, but CH was next in general, GdSJ 3rd (sweet, no off flavor, gummy texture, but didn’t stand out for any other reason), RdB 4th, and the Yellow Longneck was barely sweet. They don’t seem to ripen well in the cold either.
Though VdB did well in that contest, over the last week, the Chicago Hardy figs that have ripened have consistently tasted better. VdB still tastes best I think if you let it hang on the tree for a long time, and up until now I haven’t been willing to do that because of the birds etc., but now I realize at this point they aren’t worth eating early so if the animals get them that’s just the way it is.
I know this is territory many have already covered before (@ramv etc.,), but I’m still happy to be getting to first base with my fall-crop figs and it was good season for them.
