Feeding the Bees

Fig Art

A friend of mine produced the original piece.  I used my smart phone to snap a couple of shots, then ran them through some photoshopping, and viola!

There's is more art to come, stay tuned!

Figs Saying, "We're RIPE!"

When Figs Attack

Figs produce at an 'injured site' a milky white substance that is sticky and latex in form, but if it comes into contact with unprotected skin and you apply a little direct sunlight...this happens

To avoid this keep an abundance of alcohol wipes on hand, and wear plenty of protective covering.  :)

Pregnant Fig!

My Fig Tree

I planted my Saddle Fig Tree back in 2002.  It began in my yard as merely two small branches that stood no more than three feet tall.  The first year I had it in the ground, it produced no figs and grew very little.  I paid less than $5 for it, from a small local nursery.  I bought the only one they had, and planted it with a piece of PVC pipe/feeding tube angled to the bottom, that I utilized to water and fertilize the root ball directly.

For the next couple of years, it grew more shoots and began to put on foliage, but produced little fruit.  I recall that in its forth year, it produced no more than a dozen figs.  We consumed them fresh, only minutes from being removed from the small bush.  By this point, it had overgrown the small ring of stones I placed around its base to hold the soil up and around it.  It was about six feet tall and consisted of several thick branches.

At around five years of growth, it began to take off in a way I did not expect.  It took on the characteristics of an invasive species bent on complete yard control.  Within five years, it was more than ten feet tall and just as wide.  During peak picking season, it would produce several pounds of ripe figs every two or three days.  At this point, it was producing more figs than my household could consume, so I began to dehydrate them, and give them away to friends and extended family.

It is has now been in my yard for over a decade.  It is some fifteen feet tall, twenty feet wide, and produces more than two dozen pounds of fresh figs every two days.

I can not keep up...  They have become a plague from which there is no escape.

HARVEST TIME:

Every two days, I collect this many flawless figs:

I left plenty more on the ground if they appear damaged by birds or insects:

After inspecting and rinsing they are halved and placed in a food dehydrator for 24 hours at 135 degrees.  Then they look like this:

When I feel especially entrepreneurial I package and sell them online within a local farm and garden coop.