Fig Fail

I love figs so much.  We bought our house during a horrible drought, and I wasn't sure the fig tree in the backyard would ever recover.  But luckily it survived, and is now big and beautiful. I have been waiting anxiously for the figs be ripe so I could make massive amounts of fig preserves.  Last summer we went out of town right as the figs were perfect, and I vowed to make sure that not a single fig was wasted this year.  So, I had stocked up on mason jars and found the best looking recipe.  A few days before the figs were ready to go, I made 1 batch of preserves with the few figs that were ripe already as a test run and they were just perfect.  I was ready to can away.  

So the day of my big harvest rolls around and I am ready to spend the day inside hiding from the heat with my very first little canning factory.  I go out with my bucket to start picking, and saddle up to my tree to find that there is not a single fig left on the tree.  The carnage was all over the ground.  A gang of squirrels and birds had binged on my fig tree.  At least I got 2 jars of figs, so it wasn't a total waste, but still a total fig fail for me in the end.  Lesson learned, next year I will put a net over my tree in hopes my vision of fig goodness can become a reality.  

An homage to my singe batch of successful fig preserves.  RIP fig carnage.