In Memory of our Fig Tree

Losing the wonderful tree that used to give us an abundance of succulent figs was a devastating blow.

This is the first summer since we have moved to Kéa twenty-two years ago that we bought figs. The big tree in the front of our house in whose shade Neva spent the summer mornings died last year. We heard that ours was not the only one; lots of fig trees on the island didn’t survive the drought of these last years.

For many summers this tree and the few other older, smaller ones scattered around the property gave us such an abundance of succulent fruit!

We were often overwhelmed trying to invent ways to use up the daily baskets of ripe, delicious figs. We made various jams: sweet and fragrant, tipsy, even a sour-sweet one.

I also experimented everytime I baked bread: I topped a flat lagana with fig slices over spicy cheese, sprinkling with rosemary.

But more often I used to make a loaf stuffed with figs adding brown sugar and cinnamon, as it is Costas’ favorite.

My most esoteric fig confection was pressing the overripe fruit into an unusual, old fashioned sykopita, a dense fig-pie, found also in other Mediterranean countries —see the Italian Pane di Fichi and the Spanish Pan de Higo, both considered ideal accompaniments to the cheese plate.

Freezing fig slices wrapped in parchment paper was my last resort when the fridges were full and I didn’t know what else I could do.

The other day I came upon an unexpected bunch of frozen fig slices from years past, which were still great, so I immediately added them to a bread I was baking.

Losing our majestic fig tree we did not just loose the wonderful figs we used to take for granted, but also the large succulent leaves essential for Costas’ signature charcoal-grilled fish wrapped in fig-leaves. Inspired from an ancient description, this method of grilling protects the delicate fish while also imparting an interesting aroma as it caramelizes over the embers.

Now Costas has to harvest leaves from a tree down at the port, since the fig trees around Otzias seem to have smaller and thinner leaves, not nearly similar to the ones our dead tree used to offer us…

Quite unexpected, for me at least, was the stylish, mid-century LA home of Lilly Collins, the actress playing ‘Emily in Paris.’ In the Vogue photos she seems, somewhat out of place in the carefully furnished, yet soulless rooms.