How to grow figs in Canberra gardens

The wonderful delicacy of the ripe fig just plucked off the tree will leave a lingering taste in your mouth. Well, I should rather say "gently twisted" rather than simply plucked. You are wishing to keep the skin of the fig intact.

Once established, these trees that have grown in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries for millennia, will be able to survive the long, hot summers of Australia. However, to produce a good return on investment, you do need to keep them well watered as they grow best when planted in a sunny location. Their big leaves will tell you quickly if they are suffering from water stress.

There is a small window between a fig still ripening and the fig becoming overripe and soft. The noble fig does not ripen after being picked from the tree so you are relying on the farmer to harvest them at just the right time, just as they are firm with a slight softening. If you have your own producing fig tree, you will know that it requires you to visit every second day through the harvest season.

When you have too many for daily consumption, then a batch of fig jam is just the thing. As well, you can easily dry figs using a warm air dehydrator. Press the fig flat and it will take six to eight hours at a medium temperature. Following Middle Eastern traditions, you can use the warmth of the sun to dry your figs. Keep under glass or thick plastic to keep them clean; it will take several days to completely dry them. Store in airtight containers for enjoyment during the winter months.

Figs are a wonderful dessert fruit. Scoop out the flesh of 15 to 20 figs and make your own home-made fig ice-cream, with the contrasting tastes of the fig and the cream. Roasted figs with honey drizzled on top is another delicacy that can easily be produced at home, and served with vanilla ice-cream.

We have netted our fig trees each summer before the figs have ripened. However, I have seen one fig tree in the back yard of friends at McGregor whose fig tree is double the height of ours and it would be impossible to net. In such cases, you would probably be sharing the highest fruit with daily flying visitors.

There is a bountiful supply on our older trees and a good crop on our four-and five-year old trees. Our 30-year-old Black Genoa fig tree produced more than 200 early season breba crop figs and may well produce another 600-700 figs during the main autumn crop. Fresh organic figs are highly sought after at the Capital Region Farmers Market, each Saturday morning.

Our new plantings have benefited greatly from regular deep waterings and having their root systems well covered with a good layer of mulch, to help them through this hot summer just past. I would say that the growth of the young trees has been in the order of 30-35mm over summer and now those shoots are carrying big shady leaves and some autumn fruit.

Several young Brown Turkey fig trees have begun to produce a crop. As well, this is the first season where we have picked some of the Yellow Excel and Silvan Beauty figs with their light amber flesh. The flavour of these light coloured figs has been excellent.

Fig trees are a boon to the home gardener and they really have few problems associated with their growing. Australia may not have a high proportion of the 600 known species but you can now source a good range of the dark purple, light brown and the light yellow/ green varieties that will grow well in our climates.

Mid winter is the time to plant out new trees. Just make sure you secure trees with a vigorous, fibrous root system; avoid trying to grow a fig tree that has just one or two truncated main roots, as they just can't grow a healthy root system before our hot dry days set in.

Roasted figs with yoghurt

8 firm, large figs

2 tsp butter

3 tsp honey

juice of 1 orange

2 tbsp brown sugar

80g chopped pistachios

pinch of salt

250ml Greek natural yoghurt

Preheat oven to 190C. Slice the figs length ways and place in a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place a little butter onto each fig half. Mix the honey with the orange juice and drizzle over the figs, then sprinkle with the brown sugar. Scatter the pistachios over the figs. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven and then serve with a generous dollop of yoghurt.

This week in the garden

Transplant lettuce seedlings and add in a row of radish and rocket to provide colour at the table in late autumn.

Sow broad beans now to allow them to become established before the cold winter nights. Also plant out some rows of snow peas, shelling peas and sugar snap peas to have a good late winter selection of vegetables.

Remove all dead tomato plants and dispose of them. Do not add them to the compost as they will harbour plant diseases.

Prepare a garden bed for planting out garlic later this month. Dig in plenty of well rotted compost and hill up rows to provide good drainage.

When harvesting pears and apples, set aside any with bird or rub damage to poach, stew or to make some delicious dried fruit.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.