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The Incredible Fig

nautil.us

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Re: The Incredible Fig

#11

Post by tastysandwich »

Oh man, my whole family is nuts on figs. My grandfather, my parents, and I each have a fig tree in our respective backyards. Every year we compare, but you can't beat my grandfather... His figs are the biggest I've ever seen! And no special tools/chemicals, just old-school gardening.

I think the tree I have is a ficus carica. I could be wrong. Lovely purple figs.

The way I eat them is by pulling them apart first. In my whole life I've never seen a wasp inside. So if one did get stuck in there, clearly the fig is just absorbing it out of existence anyway.

Re: The Incredible Fig

#12

Post by mig39 »

supahfly_remix wrote: post #4
JadeNB wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are figs unsafe for vegans? (After reading the article, I guess because of the wasps. But I thought the idea of veganism was to not harm any sentient creature, not to avoid consuming the biomass of any once-sentient creature. Otherwise, surely all plant life on earth, as one way or another fertilised by once-sentient biomass, would be off-limits!)

Figs have wasps remains in them. Wasps are a necessary step for pollination, explained here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofmeister_kink

This is great. I spent 30 minutes on Wikipedia reading about automotive design!

Re: The Incredible Fig

#13

Post by cm2012 »

tastysandwich wrote: post #11

Oh man, my whole family is nuts on figs. My grandfather, my parents, and I each have a fig tree in our respective backyards. Every year we compare, but you can't beat my grandfather... His figs are the biggest I've ever seen! And no special tools/chemicals, just old-school gardening. I think the tree I have is a ficus carica. I could be wrong. Lovely purple figs. The way I eat them is by pulling them apart first. In…

Fig wasps are rare in the US, our common fig species propagate without them. They are more common in Europe and South America.

Re: The Incredible Fig

#14

Post by enchiridion »

tastysandwich wrote: post #11

Oh man, my whole family is nuts on figs. My grandfather, my parents, and I each have a fig tree in our respective backyards. Every year we compare, but you can't beat my grandfather... His figs are the biggest I've ever seen! And no special tools/chemicals, just old-school gardening. I think the tree I have is a ficus carica. I could be wrong. Lovely purple figs. The way I eat them is by pulling them apart first. In…

I’ve revived the tradition in my family!

Switched to using bubble wrap and black plastic to wrap the trees this year. Went so so much faster and easier than any other method I’ve tried.

What technique do you like for winterizing?

Re: The Incredible Fig

#15

Post by cm2012 »

supahfly_remix wrote: post #4
JadeNB wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are figs unsafe for vegans? (After reading the article, I guess because of the wasps. But I thought the idea of veganism was to not harm any sentient creature, not to avoid consuming the biomass of any once-sentient creature. Otherwise, surely all plant life on earth, as one way or another fertilised by once-sentient biomass, would be off-limits!)

Figs have wasps remains in them. Wasps are a necessary step for pollination, explained here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofmeister_kink

The average fig you'll buy in the US has never had a wasp in it, different species.

Re: The Incredible Fig

#16

Post by therein »

supahfly_remix wrote: post #4
JadeNB wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are figs unsafe for vegans? (After reading the article, I guess because of the wasps. But I thought the idea of veganism was to not harm any sentient creature, not to avoid consuming the biomass of any once-sentient creature. Otherwise, surely all plant life on earth, as one way or another fertilised by once-sentient biomass, would be off-limits!)

Figs have wasps remains in them. Wasps are a necessary step for pollination, explained here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofmeister_kink

Whether that is the case or not, we are talking about the remnants of a sentient being that went through a stage of its biological life willingly. Besides being more an insect than an animal, it's not like this is similar to asking a vegetarian to eat roadkill or an animal that died of natural causes, which wouldn't be healthy or conventional anyway.

If some are taking it this far, would they be opposed to eating apples from a tree that was fertilized by the remnants of a decomposed animal?

Re: The Incredible Fig

#17

Post by JadeNB »

ohCh6zos wrote: post #10
supahfly_remix wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Figs have wasps remains in them. Wasps are a necessary step for pollination, explained here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofmeister_kink

This is wholly for my own curiosity, but can people with severe wasp allergies eat figs?

Aren't wasp allergies usually to their venom, not to the wasps themselves?

Re: The Incredible Fig

#18

Post by msrenee »

This is one of those articles where the author claims to have experience in the area and then states something so wrong you have to wonder what else they're incorrect about.

"...although the word “fruit” is deceptive because figs are anatomically not really fruits but a cluster of hundreds of flowers enclosed in a smooth skin."

Figs are a fruit. It's basically the definition of a fruit. If you want to say figs aren't fruits because they're made up of multiple flowers, then what are mulberries? Pineapples? Breadfruit?

Re: The Incredible Fig

#19

Post by johnthedebs »

When I see figs come up in popular media lately, it's always in regards to the unlikely way in which they're pollinated in the wild. While it is very interesting, and may possibly be important to people eating vegan diets, it feels to me like it's missing a big part of the story of figs.

Figs have an incredibly rich history and present - they were apparently one of the first plants cultivated by humans and they have followed peoples' migration across the planet (largely through the magic that is vegetative propagation). I've found the communities that exist to collect, share, and preserve different varieties (there are hundreds, at least) and their stories quite friendly and welcoming. [0][1]

They are also a surprisingly delicious fruit when fresh and ripe but, unlike many other fruits or vegetables, fresh ripe figs are almost always acquired somewhere locally - a tree in a backyard, a local farmer's market, a friend who grew more than they know what to do with. They are very soft when ripe and mostly spoil too quickly to survive modern shipping.

This past summer, a number of fig-related threads in my life came together and I became very interested in figs. I found a number of trees in my neighborhood in Brooklyn which I'm documenting. I've been collecting[2] and propagating cuttings to grow and give to friends, and I'm learning how to grow and care for them in colder climates.

If you haven't tried fresh figs from someplace other than a grocery store or restaurant, I highly suggest looking for them at your local farmer's market some time between late July and early October (in the Northern hemisphere), or get your hands on a tree and try growing some yourself :).

[0] https://www.ourfigs.com/

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Figs/

[2] https://www.figbid.com/

Re: The Incredible Fig

#20

Post by bin_bash »

msrenee wrote: post #18

This is one of those articles where the author claims to have experience in the area and then states something so wrong you have to wonder what else they're incorrect about. "...although the word “fruit” is deceptive because figs are anatomically not really fruits but a cluster of hundreds of flowers enclosed in a smooth skin." Figs are a fruit. It's basically the definition of a fruit. If you want to say figs aren't…

A true fruit is only from the ovary[0] so it doesn't meat the strict definition as it includes the entire flower(s). As I understand there is debate about this but my dad is a botanist and I've heard him call figs "false fruits". You may disagree on that point but I don't think it's sufficient to discredit the author.

[0] https://www.britannica.com/science/ovary-plant

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