A full season of cooking with figs and fig leaves, logged by date from the first green figs in May to the last salad in July. Toasted fig leaf powder, cheesecake, a pistachio tart with 23 eyes, pickles, smoked figs, chutney. One failure — goat cheese aged in grappa-soaked leaves, which did absolutely nothing. I didn't invent any of it. All of it was new to me.