Fig tree is full of ripening figs! (I think this is an unnamed fig someone bought at a big box store. I got a start about ten years ago while walking in my neighborhood.) It isn’t a super high quality fig, but it does provide a nice screen between me and my less than stellar neighbors. It also is a closed fig when ripe. However, the bees and hornets have been feeding on the resin that closes these and contaminating the fruit.
Figs in a slightly chlorinated water bath. I grew up sterilizing fruit and vegetables in a couple of drops of bleach in water. Before you freak out, there’s already chlorine in your tap water (unless you are on a well.) I do this with stuff from the grocery store too. It kills any molds or yeasts (or whatever) on your fruits and they will last longer in the refrigerator.
I did have to go through these and toss some. I usually take the ones that are overly ripe, split the bottom open with my fingers and smell them. I’m looking for a “wine” type smell. I don’t need wild yeasts for my wine and that smell means the inner fruit is contaminated. It, at the very least, means there’s wild yeasts inside. But it could be contaminated with bacteria and other stuff you don’t want to consume. Toss the smelly ones. Even if they just smell a little.
I wasn’t happy with how my fig wine turned out a few months ago. I followed a recipe I knew wasn’t right, but it was for the right amount of figs. Never again. I knew some of the steps were wrong, but I didn’t know exactly what that would do to the final product. I ended up dumping the 5 gallons of wine I made. Not a big deal: Free fruit + a few packets of wine yeast + sugar. Barely any input from me. This time I will combine recipes and go around the directions for the giant batch I made (that made the wine sour.) and rely on the process that I know is right. It’s why I didn’t post the recipe in the fig wine post. We’ll go at it again. I really liked the end flavor, minus the soured aftertaste. So, it’s worth trying again.
Meet you out in the garden to savor the sweet, taste of figs!
Crazy Green Thumbs
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Crazy Green Thumbs 
I LOVE figs! Sorry to learn that your fig wine didn’t thrill you.
Well, unfortunately there are a lot of people posting recipes on their sites that are either unsafe or will not turn out well. There were two steps in the recipe I found that I knew were going to be a problem and I did those steps anyway because I figured: why would they post this if it was doomed to failure? This is why I didn’t post the recipe. The world does not need anymore bad information! Thanks for coming by, you brighten my day with your comments!
We had a good harvest from our fig tree this year. I’m not sure of the variety we have, I think its a brown turkey fig, ours go from yellow to purplish brown when ripe.
Yeah, I don’t know what this is. I had (at the time I planted this tree) a Celeste and an unknown cultivar, both in pots for several years. One died so I put this one in the ground. It grows like gang busters but it’s not my favorite fig. It makes an excellent screen between us and the neighbors though. These get brown spots on them when they are over ripe, but remain a greenish yellow. They are not high quality figs so I’m leaning towards the idea that this is an unnamed fig from lowes or something. That’s the problem when you get starts from random plants. Who knows what this is. However, I use this tree for fig wine, so all is good! Thanks for coming by and commenting! I appreciate the visit.
I planted a Chicago fig this year. It’s growing faster now that we’re in the triple digits almost everyday though I doubt I would get any fruit off of it this year. I can’t wait to have figs though.
It took about a year for each of my figs to start fruiting. For fruit trees: that’s ridiculously fast. And they pump out fruit for months when they are happy. Severe pruning is needed to keep them low enough to pick without a ladder, but the upkeep is worth it! Glad to hear that you are growing one! Thanks for coming by. I appreciate the visit!
Wow, good to know that I will figs to look forward to next year. Yes, that is fast for a fruit tree. My plum trees took 2 or 3 years before eeking out a couple of decent size fruits.
These figs look fantastic! Great photos.
They taste pretty good too!