This fall has been unusually sunny and dry. We have a bumper
crop of ripe tomatoes, unusual in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been giving them
away by the grocery bag full. Usually we bring the tomatoes in green when the
rain starts and they slowly ripen by Thanksgiving. The indoor ripening process
is scary because it means that most of the “ripe” tomatoes in the supermarket
could be months off the vine. The other crop that’s unusual has been the second
fig crop, which normally doesn’t make it, but this year has been fat, sweet,
and juicy.
There are lots of perfumes based on green fig leaves, and
some based on the fruit. They’re all good. However, yesterday an online friend
wrote me asking if I’d ever smelled dried fig leaves, crushed to release their
fragrance. I had not, but rushed out to the back yard to retrieve a few crisp,
fallen leaves from under the brown turkey fig tree. Dried leaves were scarce
because the tree’s leaves are all still green and figs of all sizes and stages
are still growing, taking advantage of the fall sun. When I crushed the dry
leaves in my hand, I was amazed to find that they released a strong, sweet
fragrance full of coumarin, coconut, and sunny, dry, dusty things. It’s a
perfume in and of itself, different from fig fruit, and different from green
fig leaves. It could stand alone as a perfume.
When the fig trees drop enough leaves, I’m going to try
tincturing them and see what comes out of the process. I’m also thinking about
how to synthesize the smell of dried fig leaves. That’s what I love about
tinkering with plants and fragrances. There’s always another project!
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