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Green taste in figs

16 years ago

I had brown turkey figs for the fuirst time this year. I thought they were pretty good but my wife didn't like what she called a "green taste". The figs were as ripe as I could find. Firstly, what is the "green" flavor. Second, is there a way to remove it? Third, is this why many people don't like brown turkey?

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Comments (8)

gorgi
16 years ago
Latex (the white milky stuff)! Let them (figs) get fully
ripe! Peeling the skin also helps...
gorgi
16 years ago
Re: peeling skin;
specially the bottom (stalk) end.
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Well trevor you could get as many answers as there are fig varieties in the world! A lot of people on this forum have said that it all depends on where the fig is grown, if its best characteristics will be brought out. So the best tasting fig might be a regional thing, and also depend on soil and the weather that year. In my region, (southern California, zone 9/10, in a semi-coastal area), we don't have to worry about things like fruit souring because of summer rains, so the popular commerical varieties are Black Mission, Kadota, Conadria. For the desert, I pick Kadota, and for general climates on the West Coast, Black Mission. A dwarf version of Black Mission is Black Jack, which I grow. However, since I started growing my own back yard figs several years ago I have tried other, less-known varieties, and two that stand out to me are Negronne (aka Violette de Bordeaux) and Panache Tiger. Their flavor is different from most other fig varieties -- an intensely sweet "jam" flavor -- and they can trump Black Jack and Kadota on a good year with long hot summers in my opinion. On a cooler year, they are still very good, but then I'd rather have Black Jack, which has a good quality independant of the weather. So there is no simple answer to your question... It might help to get recommendations if you could state your region and climate zone, because a lot of a fig's developing flavor depends on that. Fig forumites would then be able to give you answers more tailored to your situation.
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pitangadiego
16 years ago
Nothing will fix a Brown Turkey.
radovan
16 years ago
I don't have bad experience with Brown Turkey, tha't the that I like very much; nice color, huge size very reliable.
I even planted more of them.
furo
16 years ago
If she doesn't like them that just means more for you to enjoy.
Woody.
hlyell
16 years ago
Jon,

Which Brown Turkey are you referring to when you say "nothing will fix a Brown Turkey"? I've never tasted the variety with light colored flesh, but the BT's we have here in the deep south with dark red flesh are actually very good...to me anyway :) As a matter of fact, some late ripening BT's I ate fresh off the tree this year were some of the seetest and most enjoyable figs I had all year. Anyway, I'm curious about your comment. I know there is a definite subjective quality to the topic of fig taste.

Henry
herman2_gw
16 years ago
I also have a Brown Turkey from Columbia Maryland that is growing on some spot from 1943.
In Deed it has Deep red interior and i like the taste and flavor,very much.
But as Jon (pitangadiego) said,I also had at least 4 others from other sources,that were indeed bland to my taste buds.
So yes not all Brown Turkey are the same,and not all are bad.
It looks that this type of fig originate from Turkey,but more than one cultivars were introduced with this name so some are better than others.
I do keep the one i have,now.
girlfromthegarden
16 years ago
radovan wrote:

I don't have bad experience with Brown Turkey, tha't the that I like very much; nice color, huge size very reliable.

"Huge size"? okay, then maybe I *don't* have an "English Brown Turkey", from EL in Virginia (the fig was purchased in '04), but maybe a Celeste instead? the figs are smallish, brown-skinned, tend to drop a lot of the fruit before it ripens (just like Herman's!), the ones that do ripen are tasty, but sometimes the skin is pretty tough, not at all reliable. Wonder what a real BT would be like then? Anyone got a pic of a BT or EBT side by side with a Celeste, for comparison's sake?

Sherry
(p.s. This was the first real year for quite a few of my figs to fruit, and it's been a blast! Someone else here had the Alamo fig along with me, from cuttings, and I got some really nice fruit from the two plants: large, brownish-purple skin and good flavor, mostly amber interiors. Maybe they are BTs? If that person's still around, did you get fruit off your Alamo fig again this season? we could start a separate thread for it. I really need to find my digital camera!)

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