Yes, in the USA, where people are accustomed to brightly colored peels on their citrus , they would automatically just assume the orange is unripe if the peel is green so I doubt many people would buy them as is. That's exactly why some commercial distributors in this country artificially dye their peels. I've seen oranges, limes and lemons that have clearly had their peels dyed. I used to pick all citrus at market by the color of their peels but after picking many citrus fruit at market with beautifully deeply colored peels in the past only to find them hard, dry and pithy inside, I now know better. Juicy ripe citrus will give a bit to pressure when filled with juice and fully ripe

Figs just need some water to produce good fruit, but not a lot of water (deep irrigation once every week or two weeks). Seemingly unirrigated figs with good fruit are probably accessing a shallow water table. I have known of fig trees, some quite old, surviving in totally dry situations where old homesteads used to be, but the fruit was generally small, hard, and inedible. The nice thing about fig trees is that they are very amenable to pruning for size and shape.

I live in Jacksonville zone 9A, only a few miles southeast of the 8b border. I have an orange tree and a ruby red grapefruit tree that have both survived 9 degree nights (I checked the weather records, the trees are at least 25 years old, so I was able to look up the lowest temps they'd been exposed to.) Most winters we will drop into the mid 20's to upper 20's for at least a week at night, with an occasional drop into the teens that happens once every few years. My neighbor has a tree of a similar age, it is a swingle citrumelo now because the scion froze and only the rootstock survived. The reason why my trees are alive is because they are on their own roots. They are not grafted, someone grew them from a seed. When the tree is ungrafted, unless the earth the roots are in freezes solid, they will come back from the roots even if everything above ground is killed off. I would recommend experimenting with rooted cuttings of anything you'd like. Seeds may be better, I think you'll be more likely to find something that can live on its own, but they will not fruit for 5-10 years, so it depends on your patience. I think just fruits and exotics sells certain types of citrus ungrafted, they sold me a variegated eureka lemon and said those worked better with no rootstock. Many of your plants will die due to the soil conditions on your property. Those that can tolerate your soil should be planted on the south side of your house, and frame protected when young. When they get too big for that, just watering them well before a freeze should save them 95% of the time. The difficult part will be finding something that can grow in your soil with no graft. Once you do, the cold is much less of a problem than for a grafted tree. One warning-- most citrus is dwarfed by the rootstock, my ungrafted grapefruit is 25 feet tall and about 15 feet wide. Think about space considerations and the eventual spread of the canopy and roots when planting close to your house, as citrus roots can be invasive.

Obviously no personal experience with your location gardening - the CA Gardening forum may be of more help. But UC Davis provides a great deal of info on growing asparagus in your are. They include planting times: PLANTING CALENDAR North Coast (Monterey County-north): January through March South Coast (San Luis Obispo County-south): January through April Imperial and Coachella Valleys: October through March San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys: January through March and recommend only varieties with high fusarium resistance like UC 157. I see there are several plant vendors in northern CA that sell that variety crowns. Otherwise one could assume that the varieties that are grown and sold locally would be your best investment. Dave