It started with the figs last week. I’ve heard fresh figs are very hard to find in the market and very expensive. Now that we have two fig trees, I can see why. Ripe figs are quite perishable, being in perfect form for just a day after picking. They can be kept in the fridge a week but do get softer. Like bananas, figs can be eaten when super ripe but they turn winey.

Every year I tend to give away our little fig harvest.

I love sharing and I’m just in the right place at the right time and there are people to give figs to. But this year, there was no one. So to do the figs justice, I determined to celebrate each and every glorious one. Such richness, oh my. Figs are liquid gold, honey that grows on a tree, a king’s dessert!

The fig trees nearly died two years ago from the cold winter. I’m so thankful we have figs again on one of the trees.

We were out of town so I missed the peak ripeness of some of them and several had already dropped. I picked all the ripe figs from the tree.

Look at this basket of amazingness! I wish they weren’t so perishable.

A month ago I found a new favorite goat cheese, Julianna from Capriole.

My entire breakfast that day centered around the first ripe fig with Julianna cheese. (posted on Instagram)

But still, there truly is nothing finer than just one perfect fig.

If you only have one fig, enjoy it slowly, plain, with nothing else at all.

But if you have more figs, then it’s fun to go further. Which started my search for the perfect compliment, a flaky barquette to cradle a fig and other flavors.

…to be continued…