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At the end of a long, hot, dry summer, the dried plants and scorched grass seem to say, "Give up" on summer.

But wait! The end of August and early September bring on the sweetest, most storied of fruits: the fig.

My earliest memory of figs is from my family's trip to Ocean Drive, S.C., when I was 4. On our way home each August, we stopped at a farmhouse to buy figs. The pale green globes in the pint wooden boxes rested on the floorboard until we arrived at our house where we ate them right out of the box, or cut them up in cream. What was left went to jam.

Today, figs are closer to home. In fact, a drive to the home of the Rev. Warwick Aiken and his wife, Marianne, on Riverside Drive in Eden proves that figs are in abundance. There are five fig trees on the large, sloping lot at the back of the house. A few trees grow at the edge of a wide and deep vegetable garden and flower bed.

The Aikens moved to the Spray area in the mid-'50s where Warwick served as rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church for many years. According to Marianne, the five trees were planted between 1955 and 1960. She brought her love of figs with her as she remembered the trees from her childhood in New Orleans.

When I stopped by one Saturday, Warwick was picking the day's crop. He picks every third day in season. Since his retirement several years ago, Warwick has joined Marianne as a full-time master gardener.

Sharing her enviable knowledge of the fruit, she pointed out the Celeste figs in Warwick's gathering box as the smallest, sweetest fig. Both the Celeste and the Monticello are old varieties. In fact, the Monticello may have been grown on the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's estate in Virginia. Of the fig trees in her yard, Marianne likes the large brown Chicago one best. She says it does well for everything from jam to wine.

Warwick and Marianne led me into the kitchen for a little wine tasting. Fig wine is definitely made for sipping, as it exquisitely sweet. I highly recommend it.

After the wine tasting, I asked Warwick for some references to figs in the Bible. He laughed and said Adam and Eve clothed themselves with fig leaves, which is interesting because Warwick earlier had praised the fig leaves for withering on the trees. There were no leaves to rake. Since figs have been around since the beginning of civilization, perhaps the originals were hardier and more wearable.

For centuries, figs were used in place of sugar or in addition to honey. When sugar was rationed during World War II, figs were used in cakes.

Marianne graciously shared her fig preserves recipe with me. She labels each jar with the variety of fig as well as the date the preserves were cooked. She uses the following recipe for all fruit preserves.

Fig Preserves

Wash and remove the stems from the fruit.

Add sugar to equal fruit in a sturdy container, but with the sweet figs, use less sugar. So for 4 cups of figs, add 3 ½ cups of sugar.

Add a very small amount of water, such as 1/4 to 1/2 cup (my addition).

Add a squirt of lemon juice and a bit of lemon zest, or peel.

Put a top on and let it cook on the stove. As Marianne says, "Cook the dickens out of it."

And watch the pot, stirring often, or the jam may burn.

Put in jars that have been scalded. Cover with melted paraffin wax and jar tops. Store in a cool, dry place.

Fig Preserves Cake

Louise Price shared a recipe for a fig cake using Marianne's preserves. The recipe is from "A Matter of Taste," compiled by First Church of the Brethren and submitted by Alma Vestal.

2 cups plain flour

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon soda

3 eggs

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup fig preserves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup pecans, chopped

1½ cups sugar

Sift flour, salt, soda, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon. Add oil, eggs, and then buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in fig preserves and nuts. Bake in a Bundt pan that has been sprayed with Pam at 325 degrees for 1 hour. When cake is removed from oven, pour sauce over it and leave in the pan for 1 hour.

Sauce:

1 cup sugar

1 stick margarine

1 Tablespoon light Karo

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon soda

Mix sugar, Karo, buttermilk, margarine, vanilla and soda for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour over finished cake.