Farmers Market

We made our first venture out to the farmers market last Saturday. The pickins were scarce seeing that it is so early in the season for us here on the East coast. There were a number of booths with a nice variety of seedling for sale, in fact we bought some beautiful cherry tomato plants that were loaded with blooms for just $1, but the big find of the day was this:



This my friends is a fig. Quite possibly one of my favorite fruits on earth. I have been searching for a fig for so very long. Imagine how happy I was to walk up to this little booth, and see 4 fig plants! I knew without a doubt, I would be leaving with one.

I spoke to the elderly gentlemen at the booth and learned that he is Sicilian (just like me – bonus points cute little man) I liked him better already. He then proceeded to tell me that his great-great grandfather brought back the original fig trees, which these cuttings came from, straight from Sicily! True Sicilian figs! My little Sicilian heart was swelling with joy. Although he had two kinds of figs, he urged me to get the Sicilian fig and not the Italian honey fig that I was drawn too immediately. He said the Sicilian fig was a better “starter” fig for me. Seeing that he was the fig expert, I went the Sicilian fig. “I’m here every year” he told me. “You see how you do with this one and next year, you get the honey fig”. I couldn’t argue with that.

So my fig is potted and will be moved inside the shed to go dormant this fall. I don’t think I’ll be harvesting any figs this year, but I’m keeping my hopes up, just I case.

My Uncle Luciano who lives in Massachusetts, has a fig tree. Yes, a fig tree growing on the east coast. Not an easy feat I tell you. Each fall he buries the tree so it will survive through the winter and he un-buries it again in the spring. That’s a lot of dedication and effort for some figs.

My little sprout could grow into a tree too, but I’m not so sure I’m up for the whole burying ordeal so I’m going to grow mine in a container, just like the little man at the farmers market does.

I just had to share a few pics of all the delicious breads that we saw too. We picked up a few and also grabbed a couple of bagels to eat when we got home. There is nothing like a freshly baked bagel. So good.

So I’ll keep you all up to date on the fig progress. I’m hoping that by next year I will have harvested so many figs that I’ll be posting and asking you all to send me your best fig recipes. Fingers crossed.