Fig
Ficus carica
Family: Moraceae
Description
& storage
Fig:
soft sweet fruit, full of small seeds and often eaten dried.
Fresh
figs are delicious and often jam and chutney is made from them.
The
skin of figs is very thin and ripe figs can't be kept or transported very
well. As figs have to be picked when ripe you only can eat them fresh in
the country of origin.
In the
warm countries the figs are dried for export and storage.
Tree / shrub
The fig tree/shrub grows upto
9m x 7m.
Short histotory
Figs are originally from small
Asia and are one of the first fruits cultivated ever. The Greek mention
them and around 60 A.C. and Plato promoted the fig as being the nutrition
for athletes. A story is known of the Greek government that had forbidden all export
of figs once to assure themselves a good outcome at The Olympic Games.
The Greek knew about twenty nine fig sorts. Officially figs were imported
to Europe around 1600. Today there are more than 600 different fig types.
Use
Figs taste best consumed "warm"
from the tree. They are dried often because they can't be stored.
Types
and family
There are over 600 fig cultivars.
Other
peculiar characteristics
A lot of
fig plant races are used decoratively: like the rubberplant and the ficus
benjamina;
Dried figs
contain a lot of sugar, about 60%. It is thought that that was the reason
why Plato advised Greek athletes to eat many figs.
The white
juice that drips out of the fruit if the the stalk has been broken off
is called latex. It was supposed to represent the universal energy and was used as a remedy against infertility
and to incite the breast feeding process.
Each fig
cultivar has different shaped leafs;
Dried figs
consist for about 60% of sugar, contain a lot of vitamins and it is said that
humans could live on figs alone. It is a very healthy fruit and you can
consume as much of them as you like.
Nutrition Facts
Selection
Recipes
Acidity
For more information
about figs visit the Valley Fig Growers Homepage.
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