Fig Season is Here By Luke Butler, Jr.
CHEF JAMIE HARSON DISPLAYING HER IMPROVED CELESTE FIGS
W
hen I was a kid, my grandparents had a fig tree in their backyard. I’m not sure what species it was, but I remember it would be me and my cousins’ make-believe castle. We’d make like queens and kings, running our society from the highest branches. Despite being all up in the tree, I don’t remember actually eating any of the figs. I naively thought they were old-people food since my grandparents seemed to enjoy them so much. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My love story with figs began just last season while I was working as a prep cook for Scratch Farm Kitchen. My job was to cut bottomless buckets of figs, but the most difficult part was trying my hardest not to eat every eighth one I cut. I was mind blown that a fruit could taste so comforting and nurturing. Figs aren’t like grapes where you can just absent-mindedly crush a whole bag while watching a TV show. Figs hold this grounding power that makes you slow down to really enjoy what they have to offer. The sweet and fleshy fruit is bright, but not bright in the same way a crisp apple or fresh satsuma is. They radiate this calming and secure-like energy making you feel like you are one with the ground below you
and the world is rewarding you for taking care of it. Each one is like a reminder telling you everything is going to be okay. In early July, Chef-Owner Jamie Harson of Scratch Farm Kitchen took me around her farm and showed me her 20+ fig trees. In my eyes, she is sort of like the “Mother of Figs.” Her “children”, the LSU Gold, Improved Celeste, Celeste, Italian Honey, and Brown Turkey varieties are all producing very well this season. The smell of the trees, the preservability, the low-maintenance...Jamie is infatuated with every aspect of the fig. When she talks about them, I can see in her eyes the tenderness and passion she has for figs. Jamie loves how figs are prolific in our growing zone making the fig experience unique to South Louisiana, “Not many other parts of the country get to enjoy figs on the level we do,” she said. The LSU Ag Center states that Louisiana’s hot-humid climate is what allows fig trees to flourish in our region. Plus the added benefit of the infamous fig wasp not existing in Louisiana, most of our fig varieties have been selected to have a “closed eye” keeping the fruit from going sour with our humid and rainy summers.
