Want Better Tasting Figs? | Why the Shape of the Fig is Critical for Fruit Quality

All right everybody, this is Ross the Fig Boss. Today we're going to look at the fig trees, we're going to look and talk about fruit quality, how to ripen better tasting fruits, especially in a humid place, and how that really relates to the shape of our fruits. That's really what the main discussion is going to be about. The majority of this video is about the shape. Why is the shape of the fruit so important? I did a blog post recently, figboss.com, for anyone that's interested. We have so much information there on the blog about really in depth and high level fig discussions, fig information. I would highly suggest you guys go there and read about this exact topic that we're talking about today. But fruit quality, guys, just in a nutshell, is largely determined by the weather in which the figs are ripening in. So although the figs currently on the trees, we have very few of them that are swelling, they're still green and hard. And the weather at this point is almost unaffecting them completely. There is a really important point to be made about the soil moisture, and if we have a lot of soil moisture in the fruits, or in the containers, or in the soil, that water will then be uptaken by the tree. And if there's water in excess that the tree really doesn't need, part of that water will be stored in the branches of the trees, the trunks of the trees, the leaves of the trees, and even the fruits of the trees. So part of that water is just being literally injected into the fruit so that when they ripen, we just have a lower bricks content. And that goes really across the board for most of the fruits we grow here in this climate. The drier the soil is, typically the better quality the fruits will be. So that's why people in California, and Texas, West Texas, Arizona, that's how they're able to really ripen high quality fruits year after year. But it's also about the air humidity, the dryness in the air. Because we're always trying to remove water from the fruits. If I were to take some sugar, and I were to put it into a little container, and then I were to add water to it, I'm diluting the sugar. That's why we add water typically to some of our fruit drinks that we have, or soda that we drink. Because then we're diluting the sugar. We're not really getting as much of that sweetness in it that we may want. So it's the same thing with the fruits. If we're up taking the water from the tree, from the roots, from the soil, we're then diluting the flavor. That's how we're having a lower bricks. The soluble sugars is now lower. So it's the same thing with the air humidity, the dryness in the air. The dry weather in the air is actually drying the fruits on the tree. So when we have a fruit that's actually swelling on the tree, and it's raining, as an example here, it rained last night, that water actually is being absorbed into the fruit. Yeah, I'm not kidding. These fruits will absorb water depending on the quality of their skin, depending on the fruit itself, the species itself. But in the figs case, they very easily absorb water into the skin. And when you have a very fast absorption of water, because the water is sitting there, maybe it's dew, maybe it's condensation, whatever it is, if the water is sitting there on the fruit, we then absorb water into the fruit and it expands very quickly. And you have a fast expansion of the fruit. Well, then you have what's called splitting or a crack. In fact, it rained last night and this Campanile fig has a crack right here. Well, why does it have a crack right here? Because the eye is typically the most sensitive spot. You can see a minor crack right there at the eye. But the fig actually cracked right there because the water had sat in these positions of the fig because of the way it was hanging, because of the shape of the fruit. It sat in those locations and absorbed into the fruit and caused that fast expansion that we're talking about. So that's where the shape kind of comes in, right? Now, if you lived in a really dry place, it didn't rain really when your figs are ripening. Well, then the shape doesn't really matter all that much. Yeah, you could still have figs split in really dry conditions. And usually that's about the soil moisture. There are maybe other reasons. It's not definitely a hundred percent about the shape of the fruit and the absorption of water into the skin. But that's a big part of it. And then once our figs actually split, we then ended up having the interior of the fruit exposed to the outside elements. And then we can't have our figs ripen as long as we want. The longer they ripen, and so many growers will tell you, just let your fig ripen another day. Every day that the figs can last on the tree and ripen on the tree, typically the better they'll taste, assuming the weather is good. So that will be impeded then by climates where there's a lot of rain and people with the dry weather, they just can let them hang as long as they want, pretty much. That dry weather is also just drying the fruits on the trees themselves rather than the water absorbing into the fruit. So for people like me and a lot of us really that aren't in those locations I mentioned, we have a lot of rain in the summer. At the time these figs are ripening in the fall as well, we just really struggle with the quality. The quality is diminished. So the shape, what I'm getting to is really a critical piece to allow the fig to produce a higher quality fruit more consistently. And it's really about how the fig hangs because the fig ripens from the bottom up. So the fig is ripening from this eye to towards the stem. And knowing that, that means that the fig is very sensitive here at the location of the eye. So if the eye is further progressed in its ripening state than the neck of the fig, well the neck of the fig isn't really going to split, but the eye will. And the eye is always really the thing that we look for, we see a lot, is that the eye is splitting. So we need to protect that eye, really. That's really what this whole shape thing is about, is protecting the most sensitive part of the fig from the rain hitting the eye and absorbing into the eye causing the splitting. So if we have the right length of the stem, we have the right shape of our fruits, well then the figs hang in a way where the eye is pointed downwards, protected from the rain, and it just slides right off the side of the fig, rather than sliding off, well, the bottom, the eye of the fig. Some varieties, like this little ruby as an example, or Italian 258, or Black Madeira, as they're ripening their eyes are pointed towards the sky. So if it rains ever at which these figs are ripening, they immediately split. The eye is always getting hit by that moisture, and they will, that will just create all kinds of problems for you. And the quality will then be lowered, as I mentioned. We don't let them ripen as long as we want, and the rain is then being absorbed into the fruit, and therefore lowering the brick. So this is a variety here that I really, really like, because it demonstrates the overall shape that we want, really more than any other variety. It's called Moro de Caneva. The stems are very long, and the fruit itself is very slender and long. This slender shape allows the water to slide off the sides, rather than off the bottom of the fruit. It can, of course, if it's really raining hard, slide off the bottom of the fruit. But the length of the stem, or the length of the neck, allows the fruit to hang in a way that's protecting the eye, as we've mentioned. So Moro de Caneva for me is just, really is the epitome of the shape of the fruit that we want. Now you can have some fruits and some figs that, they have the right shape, but they don't have a long stem. So they have an oval shape, or an ovoidal shape, kind of like this one here. This is called Sister Madeline's Yellow, and you can see that the figs are more elongated. They're a bit fatter. They're not as slender as I'd like them to be, but the stem is rather short. So when they hang, sometimes they don't hang in the right way, because the stem is a bit shorter. But because it has a longer neck to it, it has an oval shape to it, or ovoidal, we're going to talk about the names of these shapes as we go throughout the video. The fig then can hang as it ripens further into its progression. It can hang in the right way to have that eye pointed downwards. But I would just say that, again, Moro de Caneva probably is the exact right shape that we want. Another one that's really good is this one here. It's called Fico Salame, and you would almost not really be able to tell from the unripe figs between this and Moro de Caneva. I really, really like this fig because it has the right shape, the length of the stem. It's the same shape, the same oval shape as Moro de Caneva, but the flavor is superb. It's really, I think, in my top three for this particular climate. Another one here that is rather new to me is called Fico Salame. You can see, again, the same really long neck, slender body to it, long stem. Look how long the stem is on this particular fruit. That's insane. I do believe, and there is pretty good evidence to suggest that this is the same as Vertolino, but I'm not really sure. I'm not sold on that just yet. We won't know until they ripen side by side. The leaf pattern is indeed different, so that's at least a nice thing for me because I'd rather them not be the same. If I can have three figs, Moro de Caneva, Vertolino, and Salame, that all have a really amazing shape, well, that's just really further progression with having figs available to people in these very humid places that we're in. Now, what is a really, really good choice is called Celeste. This is, in my opinion, has always really been the standard for people growing in humid places. The reason for that is because Celeste has a longer stem and has that teardrop shape that we look for. It's still very slender, but it's shaped more like a teardrop. This is called Pyroform. This is the overall shape that we look for as well. The oval figs and the Pyroform shaped figs, these are the ones that typically shed water the best. The fact that it has a really nice stem, a longer stem to it, it just makes Celeste a better choice. Now, I think Celeste has an edge over all the other figs that I've seen, at least that I can note, because Celeste also has a really special skin. The skin is like a rain jacket. If you think about how water hits a rain jacket, it hits the jacket and then just slides right off. It's almost like the skin is made of plastic. That's not very appetizing. Versus a thing like this, my cotton shirt, if the water hit this shirt, it would absorb right into the shirt. Then, of course, my shirt would split, right? Imagine it rained and all of our shirts just split open. Anyway, so Celeste in that way is just really spectacular. It has the skin in addition to the right shape, the length of the stem, all of that. There's one other thing that is said to be, or I want to make note of, because it's not just about the shape. As I said, it's about the length of the stem as well, the way that it hangs. We have a fig down here called Bacchio. It's new to me. It's a spherical shape. It's shaped like a circle. The length of the stem, as you can see here, is really long. This is why I chose this particular fruit. This long stem, even though it's shaped poorly, will allow it to bend down as it ripens. Like a Campanieri, like a Verdino del Nord, as I'll show you guys right here. This Verdino del Nord fig is ripening right now. It doesn't have the most ideal shape. Look how flat this particular one is. Typically, they're round. This stem, though, is rather long, typically. It depends on the fruit. Definitely, it'll be longer on an inground fig, but these longer stems on these spherical figs allow them to droop in the right way, and they have the water, again, as I said, shed off of the fruit and not disrupt this eye, the most sensitive part of the fruit. There's one other situation, one other thing I think is worth mentioning, because we talked about some of the fruits that have their eyes pointed towards the sky. Italian 258, Black Madeira, Little Ruby. Here's one right here, Brocolette, that I don't know if it really will have its eye pointed towards the sky as it ripens, but it currently does, because you can see here, it's got the wrong shape. It has a shorter stem, but maybe, just maybe, the neck will be pliable enough as it ripens to allow the fig to droop down in a way that's protecting this eye, and that's exactly what happens on a variety called Calderona that I grow, and I noticed this last year and liked it so much last year that I decided to put it into a larger container, because the shape is just not ideal. The shape really isn't. It's on the level of a Black Madeira or Italian 258 in terms of flavor, but as it ripens, even though the stem is really not that long, it allows the fruit, the neck of the fruit, is pliable enough and soft enough in the beginning stages of the swelling process to allow it to droop down and protect itself from the rain. So those are the main things there. It's all about fruit quality and consistently having these varieties will allow you to have a more consistently higher fruit quality. It's not the answer to solve all of your problems, but it certainly will help. We can't really change the weather. We can water less, yes. We can maybe throw a greenhouse over top of our trees to protect them from the rain. We could move to a different climate, and we can also choose varieties that have the right shape, but again, it's not just about the shape. It's about the length of the stem, the overall shape. It's about how the fig hangs on the tree, and it's also about the skin, in the case of Celeste that we mentioned. Is the skin absorbing that water into the fruits or not? So I want to thank you guys here for watching this. This was hopefully a good explanation. You guys are a lot clearer on this. This has really been years of knowledge that I've accumulated. So many trial and error.