Just moved house last September (Hickory, NC) and am fortunate to have a large fig tree (8' tall X 6' across) in the back yard that is now absolutely covered with nearly golf ball sized figs. Looking forward to tasting the first ripe fig of summer! Last September I was so busy getting moved in and situated that I hardly had time to enjoy the fall crop although the ones I did eat were quite tasty. Based on the descriptions I have seen I believe this fig is a Celeste variety of some sort. Skin is a light violet to brown when perfectly ripe with a deep amber to red flesh. If picked too early they are a bit watery and bland in flavor and are very sweet if allowed to ripen fully. Getting a perfectly ripe one was difficult last fall due to large hornets that seem to delight in eating them from the inside out leaving a hollow sack of skin hanging on the tree. (Not sure what to do about those...) Trips to Lowes, Home Depot, and a few local nurseries turned up nothing but BTs thus far...

Oh yea, I've been there too! Its like your tongue and lips have become super sensitive and raw from the peach fuzz on the figs. If you keep then in the fridge for a day or 2 that seems to help. I choose to take the fuzzier kinds and make jam or can them whole in a syrup. Its so nice to open a jar in the winter when all the figs are dormant. I'm getting hungry, I gotta go. -Little John

gwenn - can you show me photos of the "Croisic" tree and it's fruit? A close up of the most common fig leaf shape. I was given a fig tree under the name Gillette (mother tree was found just on the side of the road) and it does have a leaf shape and fruit that does resemble a "Croisic" Yet it has two common final shapes that it has been shifting back and fourth to for about two months now. One of the two shapes is sort of like a five leaf clover which is about 75% like the Gillette leafs that I have seen elsewhere online. The other shape is very different I will show you a photo of that shape in a bit. It would be really nice if someone could give us pictures of the "Croisic" that are undeniably real

Hi, I'm one of the "newbies" that has gotten really interested in preserving my harvest over the past two years. In 2006 I bought a house on 1/3rd of an acre and have been turning it into as much of a farm as I can. We started with gardens and improving the soil which led to the first critters which are in the worm bins. We made the three citrus trees happier (which has led to a huge crop this year.) Kept expanding the graden beds. Got Into Aquaponics so now we are farming fish as well as veggies. Anyone like the idea of netting a 3 lb catfish out of the yard and smoking it for dinner? Or Tilapia, we got some of those too but they like really warm water. Now our suburban farm includes 11 chickens (all girls) to provide eggs and help work the soil for new garden beds. We got a chest freezer but I've found we can fill it up right quick. We have a dehydrator that is used for some things but seeing as we are in hot humid bug country, drying things sometimes doesn't work so well. I've been slowly collecting the supplies I need for canning and setting up my outdoor kitchen. Hopefully I have the stuff I need soon as I need to try canning some tangerine marmalade before they are too far gone. Also Kumquats will be gone soon too. I too think it is sad that there are people out there who whine that "the man" has locked up all the food in the grocery stores and they must get welfare money in order to eat. I tell them that even living in an apartment, they can probably grow something. Then they whine that fertilizer is too $$. Dude, if you are that desperate, your own body pees out enough fertilizer to grow huge crops and yet you probably waste good clean drinking water to flush the toilet 12 times a day. Sigh Of course there are those Homeowner associations and deed restricted places where one is not allowed to grow a veggie garden let alone allow a single blade of grass to get more than 3 1/2 inches high. Those are the places that will get very strange in the even of a collapse. The truth is, there is little better than eating a meal that was mostly grown right in your own yard. I really enjoy the feeling of eating good food that we produced ourselves.