By Beatrice Hawkins
Recently I visited our local fig orchard here in Warwick and saw the trays of beautiful fresh figs available. The purpose of my visit was to buy some to make a family favourite – Fig Jam!! Now I have a very good supply that will last for a long time and be dispersed widely among family and friends!!
Looking at the flourishing orchard and realising that last year, due to the dry, there was no harvest, made we wonder about figs.
The variety grown are black genoa and the first of 750 trees was planted on Boxing Day 2007. These trees produce, in an average season, between 3 and 5,000 trays. Each tray holds 36 or 42 individually picked and packed, perfect fruit, depending on the size. Other trays of smaller ones are also available as are the seconds that ended up in my jam jars!
The origins of figs go way back as they are mentioned many times in the Bible and it is actually the 3rd tree named in Genesis. Many books of the Bible have stories relating to fig trees so obviously they have been around since the dawn of time.
If you believe in evolution they have survived the cataclysm that saw the end of the dinosaurs!
There are 4 main types: Caprifigs, San Pedro, Smyrna and Common but there are over 700 named varieties.
They appear to have originated in Asiatic Turkey and Northern India with an early introduction to the Mediterranean area where they are widely cultivated. Some historians believe they were the first fruit crop to be cultivated by man. You will find them growing in any warm area anywhere around the world is my belief.
They are so widely grown and used in the Mediterranean area, in both savoury and sweet dishes, fresh and dried, that they are known as “poor man’s food!” They are a good source of fibre, calcium, potassium, phosphorous and iron and were prized by the ancient Greeks and Romans as a food source because they could be dried and carried so easily. Anyone looking to buy fresh figs in our local supermarkets and fruit shops will know that this idea of “poor man’s food” does not apply in this country.
However there are some good reasons why they appear expensive.
Firstly they have to be hand-picked with care. Gloves and protective clothing should be worn when picking and handling the figs as they exude a white latex that can cause skin irritation in some people.
They have to be picked at just the right time – just as they start to ripen and then have only about a 3 day shelf life before they really do begin to go off very quickly and start to rot. So producers and buyers have to be very precise in getting them to market and distributed to retail outlets. Spoilage can cause big losses to producers and retailers alike. Birds can also take a toll on the crop.
So, as you will realise, we are very fortunate to have our very own fig orchard here in town for anyone who relishes fresh figs.
They are a hardy tree once established but seem to do best in areas that have a dry summer. Rain when they are ready to harvest can cause them to split. They need protection from frost until established and then can cope with quite heavy frost. We had a tree on the lucerne flats in Tamworth that regularly got frosts to minus 6 and 8 degrees during winter for days on end and it did very well. They are, of course, deciduous.
They like good drainage and morning sun and a good application of a NPK fertiliser or good composted animal manure to help them thrive. They can be planted in autumn and winter but also in summer, if you are able to keep the moisture up to them. They can be grown from hardwood cuttings about 30/40 cm long, so, if a friend has a good tree, this can be done easily. These cuttings just need to be put straight into the soil at about half depth and kept moist for the roots to develop. Alternatively, with a visit to your favourite nursery you will be able to purchase an established tree in a pot ready to plant out. New trees will produce fruit in 2 to 3 years and the trees have a very long lifespan.
Pruning is good for them and the local ones are kept at a very small size to make picking by hand easy and also as the best fruit sets on new growth.
On various properties that we have owned over the years there have occasionally been fig trees and fig jam has been a long-time favourite. On the first place I lived after my marriage there were some very large old trees in an area on the river where there had been gold mining in the 1800’s and the figs were picked each year and initially brought home in packs on horseback from the very steep inaccessible country. Those trees must have been about 100 years old at that time. A road was eventually put in to make management of stock easier and the figs arrived home in the 4WD in much better condition! There was even a very large stonewear jar that had been the “jam jar” when my father in law had been a small boy. He remembered it being filled with jam and sealed with brown paper. It is a very large jar and would hold many kilos of jam. It is a family treasure now and serves ornamental purposes to this day.
*This is an old article that has been digitised so our readers have access to our full catalogue.
