OK guys here is my beautiful unknown I've been talking about. The story of this fig is muddy still, but it sounds like it was brought over in the 1950's from Lebanon by a man who passed away whose widow still grows it (my family acquired it from the lady). They were in Palestine together for some time too, and they actually brought two figs and there may be a mix up that this one was from Palestine, but it sounds like she thinks this is the Lebanese one.

On to the fig itself! I've been growing it for ~6 years and it is now in its third season of production in ground out in the open with no cold protection in zone 7a and it gets 0-5% dieback so very cold hardy.

This is large size fig that had nice flavor from the start especially for a large fig, but now in the past 2 seasons is becoming the highlight of yard. This year the figs are very rich and delicious--perhaps in the sugar Celeste flavor family but with added complexity lots of richness. The fig and the leaves seem to have some Brunswick blood and I have read that Khurtmani is a related fig popular in Israel where this fig came not too far from.

Brunswick however is infamous for spoiling and splitting. I have this fig planted on a slight incline (not too much) and either that or the particular strain or both has actually made this fig quite rain resistant for me--I have suffered zero splits or spoils so far. Or it could just be a different fig all together since it doesn't do the bronze color change thing at all like Brunswick. The eye is medium not too large not too small and I attached a photo of the largest the eye ever gets. One season ants became interested in a couple of the very ripe figs but that was a one time self-resolved issue it seems. Also one fig one time had coarse skin like Brunswick is said to have. But 99% of my crop has otherwise had tender and nice skin and no ant problems. There were 3 days straight of rain also during harvest to last year test him out and he did OK, definitely not the most rain sensitive fig in the yard.

I always liked this fig from the start, but as it's come into its element this fig is just too tasty and rich--my dad's hands down favorite in our yard and I am starting to join the bandwagon. The last one I had (pic 5) really made me do a double take and say wow dad is right. Perhaps this is a particular strain of Brunswick that is healthy.

Aesthetics wise it is also really cool. Nice plump and fat, with a nice lightish darkish exterior. The interior last year was mainly amber (pic 14), but this year it did this awesome hemi colored interior thing where it consistently was pink on the bottom and amber on the top making for some beautiful interior colors (pic 4) . I think it's leaves are pretty nice too--pic 10 leaf was so cool. Most are not quite that cool as you can see in the other leaf pictures but still nice. Also pretty productive (pic 8).

Differences from Brunswick: never turns bronze before ripening, no coarse skin, no splitting or spoiling

Pros: really delicious rich flavor, cold hardy, productive, medium eye

Cons: there is an important con to this guy: he is a fairly late cultivar. This is the one thing I'm really fretting about with him is how much of a crop can I ripen in my climate. He gets about 8.5hrs of a sun a day so there's still room for giving him a bit more sunlight... But this is one that would do miserably in less than full sun. Even in full sun, last year he STARTED to ripen for me in early September. This year I think all my plants got set back 2 full weeks due to a late spring start so even though it's ripened some freaking awesome figs this year, the darn thing wont give up its main bounty to me yet and I'm still waiting to see what happens the next couple weeks. Hopefully as matures he will start to ripen a bit earlier and if they don't get delayed due to adverse weather I think he will ripen me a lot more figs.

Dad said he (the fig tree) may have overheard me saying I'm thinking of replacing his buddy next to him a 7 foot tall loquat grown from seed right next to him with a Vasilika Sika fig and he may have gotten upset that I'm taking away his friend. So far now I'll keep him with his friend and see how he ripens figs for me :D.

Summary: super delicious fig perhaps a sport of Brunswick, works inground, but late producer for now.
Enjoy the pics I love this fig!

that's a beauty there... and nice leaf to go with :)

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam

very nice

Congratulations!

Nice pictures and a super fig !

Francisco

Gret looking figs and I love the figs.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks guys for all the compliments! I do love this one :). I wonder if anyone thinks this has Brunswick blood even though it doesn't do that bronze thing before ripening? I'd be interested how much of the the rain resistance has to do with the cultivar vs being on a slight incline.

I should have clarified--yes cuttings will be available, just let me know :).

No splitting even in the torrential pours last week. After about 5 inches of rain, I got a fruit off the tree that tasted very nice. Not amazing like the one prior I had off the tree but very nice! It seems to taste as good in horrible weather as many varieties taste in ideal weather. I'm sure the incline is helping slide off lots of the rain, but its ground was pretty soaked after that week. So strange since Brunswick its closest fig I can find is infamous for being a pretty bad splitter. No splitting or spoiling here.

A few more ripening now as it seems we've hit a relatively dry/warm spell home stretch (crossing fingers). I'm hoping for a nice crop next year :).

Persianmd2orchard ,
Sounds like an awesome fig! Perhaps it is similar to this one: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/100-year-old-fig-tree-in-cairo-il-4319522

Thanks Andy for the thread. Not sure my leaves do look different (more finger/Brunswick like) but the fruit doesn't look too different.

Tam if I had to guess I would say it is related to Brunswick/Khurtmani. However, it has resisted rain so well for me I could never call it a Brunswick which is infamous for not withstanding any rain. We had 5 inches of rain in a crazy pour and still did great.

I picked this one today. It is going to try to battle some rough nightly lows of 33 for next 2 nights but otherwise has one last crop it's trying hard to sneak in for me.

In either case, delicious. Nothing but pure honey jam here. More than sweet enough but with a mellow finish not overbearing. This one tasted more like a classic juicy honey fig I've been searching for. Some of them taste more sugar figs and some tasted like honey figs. Still kinda doing that hemicoloration thing top pulp amber bottom pulp pink.

Whoa Andy... I may have spoken too seen about that other Lebanese fig you referred to... yes now I think similar leaves... perhaps fruit a tad different. I will have to make time to look at it more closely and maybe ask Saxonfig to chime in... As Herman and Bass point out in below thread there are figs similar to Brunswick that are different.

I had heard of the bronze tip on unripe on the popular Brunswick strain and mine does not do that was the biggest red flag to me that this isn't your typical Brunswick. I think the big difference is that it's rain resistant for me. Also very cold hardy for me.

Awesome thread below that may help--thanks Andy for pointing out this fig to me:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4984070

Persianmd2orchard,
Those pictures have me drooling. I wish I was still harvesting tasty figs.

I thought they sounded similar, but my Haikel Lebanese are still very small so I can't really make any direct comparisons, just going on what saxonfig posted.
One potential differance that jumps out at me is ripening time. The pictures of ripe fruit saxonfig posted are dated Aug 9th, but it would take someone with more experience with it to verify that is typical.

I have the same problem in Sydney Austraila got cuttings from a Lebanese family telling me its from Lebanon but i see the leaf shape like Brunswick,just have too see if it splits in the rain hope its the same strain cause they look good.

After sharing a couple more with friends, heres Nov 6 breakfest.

The figs are great again, soft skin and very sweet. Still not as rich as summer, but right now at least 8/10 maybe higher--great fig. The final day of ripening is becoming more key to them now to get a great flavor out of em. I'm very happy with it. HC giving me a tiny bit of production right now but nothing as quality or plentiful as this in this weather.

Where's the 'like' button?

Beautiful fig!! This forum does need a like button!!

The one fig I recently discovered has the same shape and leaf style. http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/lebanesesyrian-fig-6560850

Does look pretty similar and very nice, although this one seems very rain resistant. The interior this year has been consistently hemicolored top amber bottom pink, that lebanese-syrian one seems to have different interior but maybe environmental. seems like that one, this one, haikel leb are all at least brothers or cousins of some sort.

I'm still unsure if it's because of slight but definite incline or not that it doesn't split or sour so I'm interested when others grow this to give report on rain resistance. Ppl that have seen the incline don't think it is enough to cause a normal Brunswick to never split even when hit with 5inches rain in a couple days after swollen and ripening. it's taken a lot of rain while ripening actually the last 3 seasons never split. Does need max sun--it's doing OK now in about 7-8hrs sun but would never produce/ripen anything when it was in 4-5hrs sun.

Somehow I ended up getting a mislabeled fig and I think it's the same as yours. It's very sweet and has a honey/apricot flavor. I'd like to sell some trees next spring on ebay. If anyone has an idea what this fig is please let me know.

Brunswick?