People have sewn them together and worn them, eaten them as
a laxative, and grown them for thousands of years. It’s named in the Tanakh,
New Testament and Quran. King Solomon mentioned them around 940 B.C. and
Charles Dicken’s in 1848 rewrote a proverb using it.
"Train up a fig tree in the way it should go, and
when you are old sit under the shade of it." — Charles Dickens
Anyone else growing Figs?
I’m a fig farmer — we’ll technically I’m currently only growing
three fig trees. Since I live in the Hoosier Heartland, I am growing the hardy variety:
Ficus carica “Hardy Chicago.”
My ‘Hardy Chicago’ Figs that grow in my “gotta’ be tough to survive Janet’s Hoosier
Heartland Garden’ are doing well.
High-yielding and easy to grow, it produces delicious medium-size figs. They
are drought-tolerant once established — and I unashamedly admit that I planted
three in the late fall of 2011 and this summer only lost one. All three
died back, as expected, during the winter and resumed fervent growth late in
spring. But I noticed after a record-breaking severe drought where many Indiana
counties were declared natural disasters and I couldn’t possibly water
everything [my way of alleviating the guilt] that one of my little figs had
succumbed by August. After all I did buy her (and her two brothers) at
Lowes on clearance for only $2.98
each. I was so enthralled with my Fig
Tree triplets (before the drought) that I bought a beautiful three-foot Chicago
Fig from the Indianapolis Museum of Art Perenniel Premiere on April 21st.
She is lovely and has produced nine gorgeous antioxidant-filled figs on her
first summer at our home. She will be overwintering inside this winter — the
other two will tough it out.
If I didn’t tell you already — the ‘Hardy Chicago’ Fig
variety will die back in colder climates and resume growth in spring. They are
heat-tolerant — well, 3 out of 4 are. The figs ripens mid summer to late fall and are self-pollinating.
And in case you didn't make the connection, Eve sewed fig leaves together to make loin coverings (Genesis 3:7)
My potted Ficus carica 'Hardy Chicago' May 2012
Interesting article about the recent discovery and ongoing
research of an elaborate ancient garden near Jerusalem which was home to a wide
variety of exotic imported plants. — including the indigenous fig tree:
more on figs later...
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