I Dig Figs

Reader Contribution by Carolyn Binder
Published on August 27, 2010
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I was really happy this morning to find a generous handful of fresh figs ripe and ready for us to enjoy. Have you ever feasted upon a fresh fig? I must confess that I never had, until I picked the first one from our own tree. A fresh ripe fig tastes nothing like a Fig Newton, so banish that thought from your mind. Its flavor is reminiscent of strawberry and peach, with a unique and delicate texture all its own. The fruit is actually an inverted flower. Isn’t that kind of sexy and exotic? The leaves of the fig tree are quite beautiful, too, making it a lovely addition to the landscape as well as the table. They impart an almost haunting herbaceous scent to the garden air during our sultry summer evenings.

Figs in the Garden

Figs trees like to be planted with plenty of organic matter and in lots of sunshine. Make sure your fig tree gets watered regularly, especially in its first couple of seasons, and protect it from heavy frosts. Simple!

We have an Alma fig that is in its second year of production. Alma is a late variety fig that produces very high quality fruit. It is not known as the prettiest fig around, but the sweet firm fruit makes up for its lack of beauty. One of the reasons we selected Alma is because the fruit is still fairly light in color when it is ripe, which makes it a little less attractive to the fig-snatching birds that make Cowlick Cottage Farm their home.

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