Republished from 2006. *Bonus Recipe Included*
Portland has been raining figs. There are big brown, black and green blobs on the sidewalks, on top of cars, and backyards have been turned into slippery landmine fields. It won’t last long though, because we are reaching the end of the local fig season.
Fresh figs remind me, somewhat sadly, that summer has now peaked and I need to savor every last bite of it, for there are only a couple of the good weather months left.
Portlanders love figs, our green grocers and farmers markets are overflowing with them, and chefs in town are swooning with inspiration. Recent examples from Portland food purveyors include:
Alberta Street Oyster Bar and Grill: Seared Foie Gras, Mission Figs, Onion Confit and Ice Wine Vinegar.
Carlyle: Grilled Carlton Farms Pork Tenderloin, Fig and Cherry Gastrique, Mascarpone-Blue Cheese Polenta Blanc, and Chinese 5 spice Candied Hazelnuts.
Clarklewis: Hearth Roasted Squab with Figs Roasted Agro Dolce, Squab Liver Toast, Aged Balsamic, Sugo.
New Seasons Markets: Marsala and Fig Pork Sausages (uncooked and available in the meat section).
Tour De Crepes: Prosciutto, Goat Cheese, Fig and Caramelized Onion Chutney Crepes.
Wildwood: Pine Nut Caramel Tart with Fresh Figs and House Made Fromage Blanc (recommended to be paired with Graham’s, twenty year, tawny port).
Hungry Yet?
There are over 75 identified fig varieties that grow in the Willamette Valley, each just slightly different enough to be noticed. Common types in Portland include the proficient and hardy Brown Turkeys, large chartreuse Desert Kings, and the thick skinned but honey sweet Kadotas. Some varieties are much less known, like the Madeleine des Deux Saisons (Madeleine of Two Seasons) from Brittany, France, so named because they bare fruit in the summer and then again in the fall which is somewhat unusual for our climate. There is also the rarest of the rare, the Crusader. As lore has it, the Crusader fig is so named because it was rescued in the 1920’s from the dilapidated memorial site of a 17th century British Knight. A single cutting of this tree was brought to our area by chance, propigated, and resurrected from near extinction by a one Mrs. Margaret Mason in Portland, Oregon. The Crusader fig is now thought to be available nowhere else in the world but here.
Figs are mythical and mysterious, and dredge up all kinds of things burned deep into our collective consciousness: Adam and Eve with their fig leaves and other morality tales, ancient still life oil paintings showing platters overflowing with the fruit, and quaint seasonal songs about Figgy Pudding. On a more personal level, fresh figs always bring me back to a decadent vacation, lounging in the hot Mediterranean sun, and eating figs until my stomach hurt. And one of my earliest memories is of being 6 years old and lifted up high on Daddy’s shoulders, covered in a thick canopy of green, feeling on top of the world and trying to grab the ripest ones from our Grandmother’s giant tree.
Figs are ancient, thought by some to be the oldest cultivated fruit. Remnants have been found in excavation sites traced back to 5,000 B.C. Many cultures view them as medicine, certain that that they will cure both heartaches and upset stomachs. Figs are high in calcium, potassium, and magnesium. Yes, they also contain quite a bit of fiber, so they have very real laxative qualities. Figs are good for you.
An assortment of figs
Such a coy little fruit too, their modest fat bottomed exteriors hiding such luscious pink insides. Figs have a slightly nutty taste and a distinctive crunch from all those tiny seeds. They are not terribly juicy, and will not drip down your chin like a peach or a watermelon. They have a subtle scent, somewhat musky, but not overly perfumey like our garish party girl fruit, the cantaloupe. A good ripe fig is as soft as a marshmallow and can be peeled, eaten as is, or (my favorite method) simply cut in half and scooped up with a spoon. These fruits are delicate, bruise easily, and must be picked when ripe, as they do not do well once off the tree. This makes them difficult to transport and sell commercially, and is the main reason you rarely see fresh figs in large corporate supermarkets. Many people in colder climates can’t even get them, and I know a poor soul or two that has never even tasted one. Oh, how lucky we as Portlanders are to have figs growing so close to us.
Figs, however, are the ambassadors of the fruit world, showing up in many an international culture, and they get along with just about everyone, both savory and sweet. Grilling brings out their sugar as does a pinch of salt, and they are good roasted or baked, or stuffed with many varieties of cheeses. They mix nicely with raw or cooked vegetables, and can be paired with meat, fish, and fowl. Figs are versatile, and are included in all kinds of desserts from creams to baked goods, and even go well with chocolate, nuts, and other fruits, especially citrus. If treated right, figs can easily be preserved for the winter by drying, canning, put up into in jams or chutneys, or boiled down into bright sticky syrups. Daydreaming of summer in January? Try some figs preserved in brandy over ice cream, a splash of vanilla-fig syrup with orange liqueur in your vodka cocktail, or spicy fig chutney with roasted peppers for your pork chops.
Executive Chef Eric Bechard of the Alberta Street Oyster Bar and Grill, the passionate cook that he is, waxed poetic about his love of fresh figs too. He had all sorts of ideas on what do with them, and kept saying things like, “ah, the Missions, it’s so hard to find an ingredient with that deep black color, they look so beautiful cut on a plate, and figs pair well with just about everything.”
When he was at Alberta Street Oyster Bar and Grill, Chef Bechard was generous enough to share this recipe, and I hope you will enjoy it. It serves 4, very generously. Smaller plates could serve 6 as part of a larger meal, or even 8 as a tapas style appetizer.
Salad of Mission Figs, Roasted Chanterelles, Goat Cheese, Frisee and a Warm Bacon Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
12 Mission Figs (each cut into quarters, stems removed if you wish)
3 heads Frisee (cleaned and leaves separated)
2 oz Goat Cheese (chevre style)
1 lb Chanterelles (roasted, instructions below)
2 Cups Bacon Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
For the Roasted Chanterelles:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash Chanterelles to remove all dirt and place them in an oven proof pan and cover with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool. This can be done in advance.
Warm Bacon Vinaigrette:
3 Strips of Bacon
2 Shallots (chopped)
½ Cup Sherry Vinegar
1 ½ Cups Canola Oil
1TB Fresh Thyme (chopped)
Salt and Ground Pepper to Taste
Cut the Bacon into small pieces and cook in a small pan at low heat
until crispy. Turn off heat and add Shallots, Sherry, and Thyme, and slowly wisk in Oil. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper. This can be done in advance. Be sure to reheat vinaigrette before assembly.
To Assemble:
In a large mixing bowl gently combine prepared Frisee, roasted Chanterelles and cut figs. Dress with the Warm Bacon Vinaigrette and place a small amount of salad, being sure to get some of each item, in the center of each plate. Finish by crumbling the Goat Cheese on each salad. Serve immediately.
Enjoy.
Note: Local fresh figs are currently winding down but can still be found at local farmer’s markets and many other specialty grocers. There are also several free trees in town, but as much as I love each and every one of you, I just can’t bring myself to share the locations. In this case, you’ll just have to find your own.
{Thanks to J. Miller for the fine photographs}
Wow! The writing, the sensibility, the recipe…! “Such a coy little fruit too, their modest fat bottomed exteriors hiding such luscious pink insides”. The list of dishes currently being offered in local restaurants made me hungry all on it’s own. I made a fig, prosciutto, goat cheese pizza last week and it was really good. I recommend it.
Great piece. I hope you contribute often.
No, no, you don’t bare fruit – you BEAR fruit. One of those silly English language things…
So where can we find this Crusader fig?
Yeah, but bares at the zoo eat lots of figs!
Vicki, Not sure where to find the fruit, but you can find the tree through the Collector’s Nursery in Battleground, WA or Portland Nursery can probably hook you up.
the picture of the sliced fruits remind me of the high school biology diagrams of a womb.
one things i was surprised that hadn’t been mentioned was Augustus’ (Octavian) instance that he only eat figs that he picked himself because he believed someone was trying to poison him (in “I, Claudius”). turns out he was right. his wife ended up coating the figs with poison right on the tree.
“While playing dice with a group of friends, Augustus has a sudden attack of severe stomach pain. He refuses to eat anything but the figs he has picked from the tree himself. The doctor briefs Livia and she fondles a fig in a mysterious, bemused way. Augustus finally slips into death as Livia, in the background, explains her rationale.”
ah, Livia & the figs. perhaps apocryphal but a good storyline nonetheless.
I noticed a huge pile of several types of figs at Whole Foods today. I was just walking past, and could see them through the door. I swear.
For his 40th birthday, friends gave my husband a cookbook: Everything’s Better with Bacon. (… which is true … see the dessert description in the Le Pigeon review newly posted …)
One of our favorite recipes is an appetizer of halved figs, top cut side with a piece of cooked bacon cut to fit (we like the Hempler’s bacon from Washington State, available at Haggen), then a bit of goat cheese. Pop under the broiler just until the goat cheese begins to melt.
Drizzle with a bit of good balsamic vinegar, and hand out the wet-naps for the sticky fingers everyone will have after they’ve jammed a few of these into their faces. Hard to resist!
Nice article.
Would be even better if the recipe used LOCAL figs instead of mission figs.
Oh, give us a break, pig. Perhaps you might substitute a local fig for one that lives over the state line….sheesh!
blase,
You are missing my point completely. The article was about local figs and the recipe spec’d misssion figs. No problem substituting. I only eat my figs straight from the tree, in season, that I picked myself.
My problem is that, as a grower for restaurants, I quit harvesting a huge 80 yearold Kadota fig tree because chefs quit using them in favor of the mission figs from Cali. The reason had nothing to do with flavor, quality etc. They switched to mission figs solely because fo the color and how it looked on their plates. Every mission fig served in a restaurant is one local fig that rots on the ground instead of being turned into cash for the grower.
It surely couldn’t have been much more effort to obtain a recipe from a chef using the local product.
I’m just saying…
point taken.
Great writer Food Dude! Where did you find her?
After reading this my wife and I went out and bought a whole flat of figs, yes singingpig, local figs, and are kind of drowing in them now.
Anyway, your site keeps getting better and better.
I love figs. I finally found this page, and then searched to try to determine whether “Portland” was Maine or Oregon, or one of the other less well-known Portlands. After carefully examining many of the website’s links, I found a reference to Willamette valley right here on the fig page.
You might make it a litle easier on browsers who also love figs, to find out where the season has just come in. thanx, tho’ ……
Growing up in Wisconsin I never tasted a fresh fig until I moved here a few years ago. What a revelation! This article nailed what fresh figs are like for me. I love figs too.
ooooooh I do love the figs! Being the Francophile that I am, I just had to try the crepe with fig & proscuitto. MY GOODNESS! What a nice balance of sweet, salt, creamy, chewy goodness. Will definitely be heading back to Tour de Crepes. Funny that the owner recommended the Fig, Proscuitto & Chevre crepe when I asked her favorite. SHe ooogled over it saying it was her favorite fruit, definitely her favorite crepe on the menu. Thanks for the suggestion!
i would like to correct a bit of misinformation in your article about the fig you called the crusader fig. i am the daughter of margaret and it was my grandfather who first found the fig. It is correctly called the Cottenham Fig after the village outside Cambridge, England where it was found by my grandfather in a farm near his own. The farm had been owned at one point by a knight who apparently brought the fig back with him when he returned from the Crusades. It was identified by a staff member of the Royal Botanic Garden in London and I assure you that the original fig is healthy robust and producing abundant figs. Several years ago it was designated as a heritage tree and as such is saved from destruction and under strict regulations with respect to pruning and other care.
my mother who brought a cutting from England in the ’60’s when such things could still be done happily handed out cuttings to her gardener friends and there are many still thriving in the portland area including in her original garden and my own.
the large figs are thin skinned, light pink to red inside and to me they taste like honey.
Liz, thanks for the info. This is terrific. There were a lot of stories out there about this mythical and rare fig in our region, but not a lot details.
I’m glad to know that it has been saved from destruction and that it is still growing strong both here and at the source.
In honor of this story I plan to buy a Cottenham fig (Crusader)tree this fall to plant in my yard. I believe the Collector’s Nursery in Battleground, WA got a cutting from your mother’s tree soem time back and is selling it under the name Crusader. They also might be interested in the information you have provided me as they too seem unsure of the origin.
Thanks again,
Cuisine Bonne Femme
Steve,
I haven’t seen you in a few weeks, why don’t you bring us your figs? I’d take some leaves too!
I love fried figs–check out Judy Rogers’ Zuni Cafe cookbook for the recipe.
Ants decimated the crop on my young tree!
I grew up here and I’ve never had a fig. Weird.
“I grew up here and I’ve never had a fig. Weird.”
WHHAAAT! You need to fix that. Figs are wonderful.
I tasted my first fig in California, when a coworker brought some in from her backyard tree. Just a few weeks ago, Winco was selling them by the pound, and I couldn’t believe my luck — Limbo (next to Trader Joe’s on 39th) usually only carries them in pints. I loaded up. They’re sooooooo GOOD, I could polish off a pint in one sitting. Never knew there were so many varieties! Great article.
If you want to truly appreciate the seductiveness of a fig, rent Women in Love on DVD to watch Alan Bates consume said fruit…the sexiest scene in the movie…and this is DH Lawrence we’re talking about.
The Excelsior restaurant in Eugene used to serve a simple appetizer/first course: a fresh fig, sectioned and spread like a flower, with a dab of creme fraiche in the center. Heaven on a plate.
Are there any u-pick figs in the area? I’ve never had a good fig from the grocery store (usually whole foods). When they’re at the peak of ripeness (the only time worth eating), they transport very poorly because they are mushy and squishy. I will have to scope out the farmer’s markets this week to see if I can find any that are acceptable, but I have my doubts and would love to find a place I can pick them myself.
Have two large fig trees in the backyard, nice crop. Nothing like going into the backyard and getting them off the tree for free!
Hi everyone. Thanks for reading and commenting. Just an FYI – this article originally ran in September 2006, at the end of fig season. August is really the start of fig season for most varieties, and since the weather has been a bit wacky this year I don’t think we’ve really hit the full ripeness of fig season yet. I’ve actually had terrific luck at New Seasons, but like I said, wait a month or so for the best figs.
A few of these farms have u-pick figs: http://www.peoples.coop/community/talk/public/0066?b_start:int=0#0000
Finally, I’ll share a not-so-big secret with you because I like y’all so much. Urban Edibles is a website that lists fruit trees that are free for the picking. Check it out: http://urbanedibles.org/
Fig Ice. Amazing. Robert Reynolds has a terrific write-up on his website:
http://robertreynolds.wordpress.com/
Thanks for the tip!!! My parents 2 fig trees in Roseburg peaked 2 weeks ago, so I was thinking that maybe portland fig trees would only be a couple weeks behind. I guess I’ll wait until September before I start looking for them….
I love me some good figs. Grilling them, stuffed with a little chevre, and a honey/balsamic glaze: food of the gods. I’m stalking fig trees to make fig jam this year. If anyone knows of where to find local figs, let me know. I see those links, Cuisine Bonne Femme, so I’m stalking them, too.
Hi, i really like this site, great stuff. Figs are so versatile, really nice in savory dishes or dessert. I particularly like it on a pizza, the combination of sweet with salty sauce is a winner. Look forward to more posts. If you get a chance to have a look at my blog, please do. My focus is desserts. Cheers!! JP