I'm not sure what "DWN" is?

But, personally, I don't know that I could really do that. I appreciate each of them for their unique qualities. I also find that I really "crave" things in season. In January, I'm sick of apples and want citrus. In June, I don't want to see citrus (not that they're around much anyway) but want all of the strawberries I can get.

I am a little curious about your perception of figs. Maybe you just haven't had good luck or something? This year, with the abnormally warm weather, I had what I can only describe as "transcendent" figs -- they were so much better than any I've ever had before, like the difference between a home-grown peach or tomato and some off-season cardboard grocery store thing shipped in from thousands of miles away under refrigeration. It definitely opened my eyes to just how wonderful a fig can be. Or, perhaps you just don't like figs, not everybody likes every fruit or food for that matter. I personally love litchis when I can get good quality fresh ones, but my sister finds them, in her words, "slimy and disgusting."

Fruitnut,

There's probably not a lot of people who can grow all the fruits you can.

I'm glad you posted the list. It gives a frame of reference to someone new on the relative quality of different types of fruits for fresh eating. When someone new hears reports of how great some minor fruit is (I'm amazed at some of the glowing testimonials of 2nd or 3rd tier fruit) the Dave Wilson list puts things in persective.

That said it's hard for me to rank fruits because they all have their own season, and it's a nice change to move from one fruit to the next. I guess peaches are my favorite. Something that would be on my list are strawberries and blackberries, which are very nice in their own right.

You, Scott and Hman keep mentioning the virtues of nects. I'm really going to have to give them a try here.

Dennis,

Nothing in my post was in reference to your comments. I forgot to refresh the page before I posted, and didn't see your comments until after I posted.

Sure a ripe nectarine off the tree is sublime, but for me the season is short. Having great apples through the winter makes them king to most temperate climate fruit growers.

It would really be hard for me to choose between plums and nectarines, but if I had to give up one or the other in my orchard it would be nects, partially because of the great late crops I get from my Europeans. I'd give them up before peaches also but in this case it would be purely about the complexity of getting the nects to harvest in good condition.

And just because I just ate a few perfect nectarines doesn't mean I won't be lusting for a fresh fig or 10.

The best fruit in my orchard is the one in my hand and I want all my species.

I like them all...send them to my house if you don't like them! I'll eat any of them. I'll eat roughly anything when it comes down to it.

Personally i'll take a beef roast with mashed potates, carrots and celery smothered in gravy over any fruit..but thats just the carnivore in me!

Oranges? Better than peaches? Huh?
Of course, oranges have always been sort of Nyeah! for me, I am more of a tangerine girl.

Carla in Sac

I can't figure out how someone in Michigan can grow better figs than me south of 30 latitude. Guess it's the 4500ft elevation. But my Celeste figs freeze back in winter and are still not ripe yet after regrowth. And I did a very good job covering them last winter when we got to 10F several times. I have potted figs in the greenhouse and so far they don't amount to much either. But they are just starting to bear this year.

Also I can't seem to grow a decent peach here. Don't know what it is.

Did eat a very nice Olympic pear today. It was 4 1/8 inches diameter, 18.8 brix, very crisp, but not that firm. Still a very good pear, better for me than 20th Century or Housi. So this is a very good pear but still 2nd tier. Not enough flavor to make first tier on my scale.

Also blueberries are very close to third tier. If not for some dehydrated, slightly fermented blueberries I've had on occasion they'd drop to 3rd tier. That would put figs 4th tier.

This is the first I've heard of the DWN fruit ranking. Was this a poll that took into account only DWN employees, the general public's opinion, or what? How many voted? I'd be interested to know how they arrived at these results.

As for me, figs are near the top of this list. I'm from the Valley originally where figs are widely grown, so I know from a good tasting fig--I can't help but imagine that the DWN voters, whoever they were, didn't grow up eating fresh figs off the tree like me.

Denninmi,

You probably already picked it up from Olpea's post, but DWN is Dave Wilson Nursery, a wholesaler/grower.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.davewilson.com/

This wasn't a poll of DWN employees or tasters. It is my interpretation of their results over many years where each fruit sample is given an average score by many tasters. The highest scores by fruit type are given in a summary on their website and in a handout. Go to DWN under the home garden section. Look for taste test results. There you will find a summary of highest scores by fruit type.

To give a few examples: The top 14 scores for white nectarines range from 7.2 to 8.2. For pluot the top 15 scores are 6.9 to 8.1. For figs the top 8 scores are 5.2 to 6.3. So the best figs were rated well below the best nectarines or pluot. This is CA fruit and CA tasters, not my opinion. But I do agree.

I will say one more thing. If you came to my greenhouse and asked to taste the best I've got you'd get an apricot or sweet cherry in April or early May. After that a pluot about 70% of the time and nectarine 30% until they run out in October. Pluot are the most consistent and easiest to grow of my tier 1 fruit.

Figs really need to be ripened on the tree till the flesh softens and the neck gets soft and the fig bows down. No way to sell or ship them when they are fully ripe. I have grown some varieties that where totally insipid and some that are amazing. I keep the varieties that are amazing.

The order I would put them in......

Peach, Sweet Cherry, Naval Oranges, Fig, Nectarine, Blueberry, Apricot, Pear, Persimmon, Have only tried store bought Plouts and not so good.

Of course many varieties of figs have long seasons or even an everbearing fruiting habit here. Because of this I am motivated to grow more figs than any other tree fruit.

I am thinking blueberries would rank higher here in the Pacific NW than down there in TX.....the soil, I believe, is more acidic here and more conducive.
A couple years ago I visitted and tasted the various blueberries in the experimental plot in Mt. Vernon, Washington.
http://mountvernon.wsu.edu/

They used tons and tons of water there and got really large blueberries that were protected from birds by netting.....and it sure was fun to walk through this Garden of Eden eating and sampling the various ripe blueberries right off the bush....until someone has done this in a setting well suited for blueberries I am not sure they can rule them out as being a front-runner.

It really may not matter to the overall conversation, but can the DWN data really be interpreted/extrapolated this way? I'm not sure how to explain what I'm thinking, but I'll try. Without at least looking at the range or scores in each test, I don't see how one could use the average ratings from each isolated comparison event to compare how well the fruits were liked comparatively. In other words, due to variation of each individual fruit type and the effect of that variation on the scoring of each test, how can the results of the different tests be compared?

donnie:

I don't have wide experience with blueberries but have bought PYO in Oregon and Michigan. Those weren't as good as mine. Actually I like blueberries. They go down well and it is nice to pick a few hands full everyday. When I pick them they usually don't last long. But to me they lack both flavor and sugar compared to many stone fruit. My blueberries were 12-18 brix this year. The 18s were as good as any I've grown in 6 yrs. But my other stone fruit was mostly 19-24 brix with some 27-30 brix. And to me almost any good stone fruit has more flavor than blueberries. In a cool climate like western WA or OR many stone fruit aren't well adapted, so the berries probably are better.

brandon:

I don't know that my use of DWN info has any validity. It is just a talking point for discussion. I do believe that they taste many fruits at one tasting, whatever is ripe at that time. So if figs rate 5 at the same tasting as other fruits get 7, that is a fair comparison to me. If figs were that good they ought to get a good rating at some point.

Maybe it's just a few people really like figs and many don't. Maybe I've never had a good one. I'm giving my six varieties another year.

[[[[....Are figs this bad for you?...]]]]

Nope. I adore fresh figs. I love them so much that I'm going to try to grow them, which is going to be a huge amount of work.

I think that every fruit is my favorite.

Although, last year, the Asian pears all got eaten. Nothing else was ripe with the Asians except grapes. This year, the Asians and the European pears got ripe at the same time and all the Asians are still sitting there and the European pears are getting used up.

Has anyone mentioned raspberries? Not only wonderful for fresh eating, but one of the best fruits for cooking lovely desserts.

And grapes! Get a big bowl of them and eat them like popcorn.

But this is all so subjective
My list would be: Tart cherries, peaches,apples,apricots,persimmons,figs,raspberries,plums,
nects,sweet cherries, blueberries, pears, oranges (never tried one fresh from a tree)
I would take good perimmon or fig over blueberries or pears any day. And I absolutely LOVE good sour cherries fresh from the tree, always going to be number one for me :)

Olga

Fruitnut wrote: "I can't figure out how someone in Michigan can grow better figs than me south of 30 latitude."

Well, just keep this in mind -- I got lucky. Once, in many years. It was the weather this year -- record warm spring, record warm to near record warm summer (I think overall it was ranked 2nd warmest on record for SE Michigan NWS reporting area). In 2008 and 2009, I didn't get a single ripe fig, had to use them green and candy them.

The last year I had a decent fig crop prior to this was really in 2006, which was also a very warm summer.

I say hang in there and see what happens next year.

BTW, I was really surprised to read that your elevation is 4500 feet. I didn't realize any part of Texas was that mountainous -- I guess that's why your town is named Alpine (duh? I'm so dense!). I've heard of the "hill country" but I think that's more s. central Texas.

Zone 3/4 won't allow growing most of the fruits that are topping many of the lists here. I haven't had store bought peaches that were that good, but our local Lion's Club brought up a truckload direct from Colorado to sell as a fund raiser. Those were incredible and would top my list.

My only experience with figs has been in Fig Newton Cookies. Does that count? I hope not.

I grow raspberries, blueberries and apples and would rank them in that order. I'm going to try growing a pear and a Bali Cherry next year.

Climate, soil conditions, variety, picking time, and so many other factors must play a major role in these ratings. Not to mention subjective taste of individuals. I am surprised though that raspberries didn't even make anyone lists. Even at the bottom of their list. I guess I must be missing out on a lot of really good fruit out there.

FN, in the west what easterners call mountains are merely hills. But even west 4,500 feet is a mighty tall hill. No wonder you have trouble with frosts.

Den, we had the same weather in most of the northeast as you had in Michigan and the figs were extraordinarily good this year- but even last years cool and much shorter season brought a good crop and every fig ripened- just later.

I grow LSU Purple and Hardy Chicago and they are quite similar in ripening time, appearance and flavor. Maybe they get up good sugar here because they are pretty small.

If you grow similar varieties I wonder how you're protecting them and how early in spring you expose them to sunlight. I risk frost to get them an early enough start and cover them if it gets below freezing.

I don't know if our season is longer than yours, however.

HM, I have Hardy Chicago, Brown Turkey, and some unnamed thing given to me as a cutting by a friend with a little old Italian grandpa, although basically to me all three are pretty much the same.

This year, they all ripened, and early at that, starting in mid-late August, and mostly getting done in September, but actually, when I thought it was all done, I looked and there were more, not many, but a couple of hands full.

I gave up on any major protection scheme years ago, because I found it pointless to put shelters over them that just served as vole McMansions over the winter, and to find totally debarked branches in the spring.

I just whack them back to about a foot tall and then cover them with about 2 feet of oak leaves. I don't even bother to uncover them in the spring, I just let them grow out of the leaf pile, which of course has compacted and rotted a lot by then. Being figs, they grow fast with some fertilizer applications and warm weather.

What I think REALLY made a difference this year vs the last few years was how much warmer our NIGHTS were this summer. In 2008 and 2009, we generally had nights ranging from very cold, upper 30's, to around the upper 50's/60-ish, with just a handful of nights warmer than that. This past summer, we had just a few, maybe 10, nights where the low fell much below 65, and most nights we had lows around 70-72. We actually didn't really set any records in terms of daytime highs, probably the hottest few days were around 93-95, but almost every day from June through most of August, and again on a sporadic basis in September, the highs were in the upper 80's each day.

Overall, it made a tremendous difference. In 2008 and 2009, just as many figs formed, and I think the plants got just as big (like 8 feet), but not a single one ever ripened.

It could be 5, 10, 20 years before I have the same results. Hard to say.

My season in terms of heat is two months longer than the upper midwest or New York. I harvest 25 lb watermelon from June till October, with lots of work starting them early. There are some figs in town that ripen but none that I had this year rated any better than fair. My Celeste are setting out there right now and refuse to ripen even though we are still 80 every day. It will frost soon and I'll be done looking at them.

Figs, at least some varieties, do seem to do a lot better in a humid climate. I wonder if that isn't part of my problem?

Fruitnut you do bring up an interesting point about the order in which the fruit is tasted. If in the DWN tastings there is a tendency to sample high-brix fruits early on in the tasting and then figs sometime later, it would explain a lot about the figs getting lower overall scores. Of course that's assuming they taste different fruits on the same day, I really don't know how they go about it.

Having gone to one of Zeiger's presentations, I wouldn't be surprised if they rigged the test in anyway that would up the score for their patented varieties. That is, without being obvious.

I'm not putting down DW Nursery and I don't know anything about their operation, but pushing the Zeiger brand would certainly be in their best financial interest, I think.

"DWN taste test results roughly rank the fruit categories in this order from best to worst: nectarine, pluot, peach, sweet cherry, apple, plum, asian pear, apricot, and fig."

I rank my fruits quite differently than a taste test. In mid summmer I prefer a crisp refreshing asian pear over a good early apple, and in fall the other way. Even under ideal conditions most pluots set poorly and are prone to cracking. Pluots may rank high in taste tests in ideal growing areas, but just a bowl full from a large tree doesn't rank high with me. I am trying several kinds and hope to find the best for my area and chop the others. Sweet cherry has been ok similar to store bought. But, the bush cherries have been outstanding and need little care. I bag apples, and pears need no spray, and both are very good. My Green Jade pear had a second crop and they fully ripened sweet but seckle size, amazing tree! My figs are in pots and I am testing. Lattarula and green german, both are very good. But Figs are unproductive so rank low. Apricots were dry but good.

My fruit rankings this year are, Peaches, Plums, asian pear, apple, bush cherry, euro pear, apricots, raspberries, sweet cherry, pluot, fig.

Next season there will be a few more pluots to try, fifteen apricot varieties, many euro plums, nects, berries and grapes too.

Based on the best I've had of each:

Peach, fig, plum, apricot, apple, nectarine, pear, blueberry, sweet cherry, persimmon, navel oranges, pluot (store bought)

An excellent piece of any is better than a fair peach.

Some of these I find more valuable because it is easier to access fruits of high quality.

Negronne figs in the summer are really excellent and I have a tree in the back yard. The persimmons in the neighborhood are pretty consistant. Blueberries are nice because they can be washed and are usually of high quality when fresh.

I don't have access to local citrus and don't know how to find the good ones.

Fruitnut, you are absolutely right....we can not grow apricots here in wet cool Western Washington....cherries seldom....and unless your peach is of the "Frost" variety, good luck on that.....these stone fruits are best grown east of the Cascade mountains where the chilling requirements (and maybe dryness?) are more conducive. So we simply don't have the alternatives to sample.
Also, unless a person has actually tasted a fresh peach off the tree (as opposed to a transported store-bought one)....then he can not know how good a fresh peach is.
So, you are probably right....especially with your Brix results to confirm it.
All I can say is that it sure is fun to walk around a blueberry farm locally here and eat them fresh off the bush....and I doubt you have too many opportunities for that in Texas, even with your higher altitude advantage.

That question is like asking me which I like more when it's minus 10 outside, my arctic weight coveralls or the toe heaters in my Sorels. To everything there is a season and variety is the spice of life. However, since all my fruits get processed into juice I'd lean toward the peaches as it is very easy to process a lot of juice quickly with relatively little effort.

Culturally, the Fall bearing raspberries would be number one, so little work and lots of reward, if only it would rain around here after late July.

Den, (and I apologize to FN for going off topic) no wonder your crops are usually small. Of course you must protect your spur wood and not cut most of it off to have productive figs.

The leaves will work if you just have a plastic tray with a couple of mousetraps underneath inspected weekly- or use bait.
You can have good harvests every year for just a little extra work.

Or you can pray for accelerated global warming. I hope you're prayers aren't answered- hate the stink bugs those warm nights seem to bring.

I rank persimmons #1, way above everything else. Followed by peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums, and apricots.

Funny thing is of all the dried fruit I've tried good Turkish dried figs are my favorite. Sometimes they have a fermented taste that isn't good. But when they are right, they are really right. And those figs must be huge fresh because they are bigger dried than my Celeste are fresh.

Most of the stone fruit to my taste aren't as good dried as fresh. They lose sweetness and flavor in my drying process.

One fruit I haven't mentioned is grapes. My Summer Royal comes close to being tier 1 fresh. And dried it blows away the stone fruit. Something about grapes lends themselves to drying well.

I can understand someone saying persimmons are at the top of their list. I really don't have enough experience with them to say otherwise. My Eureka has been very good at times. But I will say that I think many people haven't had good stone fruit. Only sweet cherries reach near peak quality once in a while in the store. Until you've had a mushy soft, very ripe, 24 brix Arctic Star nectarine or a 24 brix firm Flavor King pluot, you'll not fully appreciate stone fruit.

And my all time favorite is a water stressed, 24+ brix Honey Blaze or Honey Royale yellow flesh nectarine. Maybe a properly grown persimmon or fig could be in that ballpark.

Fruitnut- DWN's list is just strange. Your list is about right , although you forgot table grapes which I would rank near the top.

If I had to rank the fruits I would say;

Peach, Persimmon, Apple, Fig, Sweet Cherry, and Blueberry in that order.

However if you add in tropical fruits; Mango would be number one.

Harvestman, thanks for the thoughts about dealing with vole issues. Believe me, I've tried EVERYTHING over the years except getting a cat (I hate cats).

I have the unstoppable vole infestation from Hades. Nothing I have every tried has worked, and believe me, I've probably spent well over $1,000 on various things in the past decade. Just too many of them and too few of me. I don't really have any good way to know for sure, but I'm sure the population density must be several hundred per acre here.

Did you ever see the footage of the mouse population explosion in Australia a few years ago -- my vole population isn't far behind that. When I go outside and walk around, voles run and scurry everywhere.

A fresh ripe peach off tree is indeed very good. However, I'm not sure I want to eat multiple of those in short order. My tasting buds have evolved from strawberries to cherries to blueberries. I like sweet stuff, but am also looking for complexity in addition these days. My judgment may be affected by the fact that I have a bunch of blueberry varieties though. I pick them into a same container. So there is enough subtle variety from one to the other to keep me from being bored with the taste.

Mouse Plague Video.

Here is a link that might be useful: Guinness Worlds records Worst Mouse Plague

Den- I feel for you, I also have massive vole infestation. They have felled full-grown apple trees loaded with fruit, ate some of my large squash vine's stems through and killed the plants, nip through the stems of my pole beans, etc. Running a water hose under the tree for hours saved a couple of trees. Planting with lava rock in the hole has saved most of my daylilies. Nails and cayenne pepper goes into each bean hole, then the stem is wrapped in foil. Planting in a hardware cloth 1/2" mesh box sticking up 1' above the soil would be my suggestion for the fig tree. I also hate cats but my DD left 2 when she went off to college. One is an excellent hunter and I saw her eat an entire vole except the skull in about 5 minutes. I don't know how much impact they can really make on the populations, though.

As for fruit, I belong to the "Love the one you're with" school, a really excellent homegrown anyfruit would be my first pick. I would also add Paw Paws and Mulberries to the list.

But I am a healthnut, I would rank fruit by health benefits, such as ORAC (antioxidant) value (see USDA chart, I think Total ORAC value is usually used), so Aronia would be at the top for N. America fruits (but doesn't taste all that great, though I'm learning to enjoy them raw with stevia whipping cream). Taste is very good cooked as in juice.

I don't think chilling is a problem here in SW Washington, but diseases in stone fruits are. Most have dwindled and don't bear after a while. Peach leaf curl killed all the peaches but the present 'Indian Free', which has lasted the longest, but all lower branches die so the green wood gets higher and higher. Cherries have done well or even fantastically for a while, especially North Star which was loaded then declined and died. Sweet cherries yielded a few years then started dropping all fruit. Montmorency had good crops the last 2 years but not this year.... Plums have yielded well then declined, though all the plums and the peach had unbelievable bumper crops last year. Methley can taste as good as a cherry, especially cooked. Anyway I'm not planting any more stone fruit.

Love that Aronia, such a consistent fruit and so easy to harvest. For flavor I would go for Blueberries, Raspberries, and Illinois Everbearing Mulberries, though, and right now some Paw Paws.:P

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA ORAC scores

Den
Have you tried metal box traps? Ketch-alls will catch about 15 per setting, another (don't remember its name) will catch up to 50 or more before empting. Check with a wholesale pest control co. I buy them 12 at a time. But I use glue boards and expanded trigger traps as well. I'm not big on poison baits, I want to find the bodies, not have them die in the wall or where I can't dispose of them.
Dan

I couldn't possibly rank fruit. It's like asking which of my children I prefer. I'm with denninmi. I love mangoes, but if that's all there is I lust after a crisp apple. If I only have apples I'll fancy some grapes.

I love them all. I may qualify that a little I don't crave for Apple but if it is there I will eat it.
You seem you don't like figs please send all the Figs you have to me. I read in some article on the Internet that Figs substantially increases libido for men and Women and Viagra research was modeled after Figs. In the old Egypt the king prohibited any body of eating Figs except him and his chosen beautiful women. Cleopatra (the history most beautiful Goddess) her beauty secrets was eating lots of Figs.
Don't ask me for scientific evidence because I just read it somewhere.

Freshness makes such a big difference with certain fruits. Once in Israel I had fresh dates- amazing! (Also Israeli grapefruits are the best I ever had- so delicious!). As for kiwis, again fresh juicy kiwis from a roadside stand in California just can NOT be beat. I crave them just thinking about them. (I can't seem to find any decent kiwis in stores). I did not realize how good figs were until I had them fresh off the tree. As for fruit shipped to stores, sweet cherries, mangoes and mandarins can be very good. What about the perfect watermelon too? Finally, if you can find a good peach, what a treat that is. I'm getting hungry.

Dennis- it's not about if you hate cats. It's which you hate more, cats or voles.

It makes sense to rank fruit according to what's at peak ripeness at a given time. There is little value in rating fruit from different months or seasons against each other. Also, there is little value in comparing varieties that are better suited to different applications such as canning, juicing or eating fresh. My focus is purely on fresh eating.

As I look at my fruit ripening schedule, at no time does an apple ever win out over any other piece of fruit. Strawberries and watermelons tend to always win out. The competition heats up in the May through August time frame when the stone fruits are going bonkers. Arctic Star Nectarine, Burgundy Plum, and Flavor King Pluot are winners in their respective time slots.