Texashomesteader, welcome to the forum. Congrats on your upcoming retirement and good luck with you homestead. I'm in the process of doing the same.

I think that the reason people suggest Celeste and Brown Turkey is because they are the most common fig names. The Celeste is the old standby of the south and has found lots of acceptance further north. It bears fairly early, has a bountiful harvest, tolerates rain, doesn't split, and doesn't sour easily unless the rains are really persistent. I would say its a must have for southern orchards. Now for the Brown Turkey. From what I've gathered on the forums, people love them or hate them and when the chips are on the table many a Brown Turkey that people love, turn out to be a Celeste or some other variety.

I don't know how much space you have to dedicate to figs but there are many great varieties out there. Others with much more knowledge than I will probably chime in, but don't just limit yourself to the two you mentioned. There are some excellent yellow figs, black figs, and figs that ripen green. Also look at figs that ripen early season, mid season, and late season. That way you can have figs for most of the summer until fall.

Do your research now and by this fall you will have an idea of what you want. Fall and early winter is the time to get cuttings to propagate for spring planting. Many varieties are available from forum members for a small fee. Other than that, purchase from some of the reliable nurseries that are mentioned in the forums. Also check out (figs4fun.com) forum, there is a lot of great info and members there.

Also it's nice to close with a signature,
"gene"

TexasHomeSteader, welcome to the forum,
I am new myself.
I can give you a penny worth of advice. I think Gene covered it very well. I am one that does not care for the Brown Turkey or Texas ever bearing (whatever it is called). We have a large tree and it makes figs every year but the taste is not that good. The Celeste is a good tasting fig but I think there are about 1000 different Celeste. In fact yesterday I looked at three old trees in Nacogdoches that I was almost positive were Celeste but it had green figs on it and it had yellow figs. They seem to go from green to yellow. There were no ripe figs on it to see what a ripe on looked like.
My penny worth of advice is not to purchase fig trees from Home Depot, LoweÂs, Wal Mart, or any of the local nurseries. Get your trees from forum member recommended sellers. This way you will get exactly what you are after.
Good luck,
J.A.

In your zone, I think you should be able to grow any fig variants. The famous JH Adriatic fig hails from Texas. Regarding both Celeste & B.Turkeys, there are many different strains. Keeping to JA's advise in sticking to purchasing from known sellers, especially forum members is the way to go. Mislabeling & good variants are issues you will have to contend with. Some good members are Gorgi, Herman, Jon(Encanto Farms), Bass(Tree of Joy) etc have excellent variants. Some good variants are Hollier, MVS, Paradiso, Sal's EL, Sequioa, LSU Gold, Stella, Gino, VdB, Battalagia Green, Aldo, It258, Smith, Scotts Blk, Kadota, Black Maderia etc.

Celeste is a super tasting fig and rain tolerant too but it drop part of crop when young and when in very hot Sommer.
When is getting old(7yrs),it stop dropping and produces some of the most delicious fruits on the face of the earth.
But one have to be young and patient.

Gene/Paul/JA/Herman,

Thank you for your suggestions. I'm not much of a fig person (yet!), but I know enough about the growing conditions to figure many of the varieties out there most likely wouldn't excel. So many fruits don't like the excessive heat and humidity. One of the reasons to look forward to retirement is the experimenting and trying new varieties. But I was seeking some recommendation (which you've provided me) to get me started.

J.A., you recomended member recommended sellers. Is there a separate section/forum for nurseries by region? Again, thanks for your suggestions!

Chuck