I wanted to share with you how pleased I was with this book Les FIGUERES A LES ILLES BALEARS by Montserrat Pons. It is written in Catalan language. Although it's written in a language I can't fully understand, the content is so valuable. The pictures are amazing of most of the fig trees from the writer's collection. He describes the flavor, weight, skin thickness. As well as colors and photos of the tree while dormant and during the summer months. I went through all 450 pages a few times already.
I would suggest this book for serious collectors, for beginners who don't speak Catalan it is still nice to look through the pictures but It's not really intended for beginners.
The writer focuses on the successes of certain varieties for the Balearic islands. Montserrat pons describes how he propagates his figs out in the orchard by placing a few branches in the ground and training them as one standard tree. As well as grafting pictorial.
The book is not available in the US but you might be able to order it from Spain directly. Be prepared to pay a lot for shipping for this 450 page book.

Very interesting Bass,
How much was the total investment?

BTW, There was an article about you in the Internet.
It showed you with the fig trees and while in the green house.
I think it was from this past Fall.
I found that interesting as well.

It would cost around $120 including shipping to purchase the book from Spain.

I will be going to Spain and Italy in May.  I may pick up a couple of copies to bring home with me.  If I can find some for 20€-25€ or less, I will probably pick up a few copies, and would be happy to distribute to interested members at cost + shipping.

Sat,

If I was going to spain and itally, the last thing I would bring back is this book. I would take small boxes with labels to ship stuff back!

Jason,

I'm in for one book. Let me know what it costs in us dollars.

-Little John

also, spanish fig cuttings can be discretely mailed to me as well. haha

Haha!   Cuttings are a given.  Books are a side project.  I emailed a close friend of mine in Sabadell today to let her know my wife and I were coming.  I already tasked her with hunting for fig orchards, and asked her to look arond locally for copies of the book, as cheap as possible.  I'm trying to prepare several months in advance ;)

To those who've provided me cuttings/plants, or I've sent cuttings to, expect that I may have some extras if you're interested.  I'm only hunting for varieties which may not be available in the US currently.

I assume that two days in Barcelona, and possibly one day in Valencia should provide me enough coastal fig hunting that i should be able to find something good.  After that, we're headed into colder weather, hanging in San Sebastian for a few days.

I'm really tempted to head up to Bordeaux nad dork around in France.  I've been wanting to score a VIOLET DE ARGENTEUIL for a long time now, and I have an amazing member whom I want to 'pay back' with this cutting as well..

Sat,

Be sure to log the location of the tree using GPS or street intersection for your records. I now do this for all my foreign figs. Nice to point someone to a tree!

If you are going to Spain, you might want to try to stop by monseratt pons' setup. Also, buy a package of padded mailers to take with you to ship stuff and make the weight lighter for mailing.

Jose,

Jason,

For using GPS with a Blackberry, there are two primary options: 1) internal or 2) external (Bluetooth enabled). This post is dated but provides useful information: http://www.blackberryinsight.com/2006/05/18/blackberry-and-gps/

JD

make sure you turn off the data while roaming if you use the gps in europe. Blackberries use assisted gps which means they base their location by looking up nearest tower. I work for T-mobile.

My Garmin Nuvi was a blessing when in Italy. If you have a Garmin you can order a SD card for Europe if it is not already in it. EBAY I just got Italy and Greece but you could get all Europe or buy a Garmin that has North America and Europe already loaded not that expensive

They should come up with a fig finder device, enter ficus carica and it shows you a route to the nearest one !

That's too easy...
it will start pointing people to my house....

Martin,

I really like your idea. Between the two forums, I suppose we could populate a database and then create "an app for that" web or device based executable that identifies known public fig tree locales or fig lovers places or people to visit...while in NM (like LosLunas). All kidding aside, this would be ideal for international travels to Spain, France, etc. For example, figs4funforumfodorsfigguideforfrance.exe.

JD

I have actually been wanting to do "heat maps" of local figs in my area using Google maps.  I know where about 2 dozen are at this point.  I think everyone should do this!

you all can do that using wikimapia....

What kind of geek am I, that I don't know about this?  ;)

I'm ashamed of myself!

Hi Bass,
I'll be in Spain during mid-late April.

Where in Spain will you be? It's a very big book, 450 pages. I doubt that all stores will carry it. Most likely it can be found in Catalonia region since it's in Catalan.
You're lucky...

Seems he has a facebook page where 1 can talk to him here is link if you scroll down you see several fig pictures.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.facebook.com/pages/Montserrat-Pons-i-Boscana/100711893251&prev=/search%3Fq%3DLes%2BFIGUERES%2BA%2BLES%2BILLES%2BBALEARS%2Bby%2BMontserrat%2BPons%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2ADRA_enUS363%26sa%3DG&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhg8qKnxOPN5yATtltNbBTX1P4Th1Q

Great link, now I finally know what Bass looks like! Before I've only seen pictures of his hands. BTW, nice hands Bass.

-Little John

Bass, I'll be in Barcelona for 3 days. Believe me, I have tried to figure if I could take an early morning flight to Palma de Mallorca and back before my 415pm flight to another part of Spain.
One idea for people who will be spending time in Spain might think about: 
The two online sales sites [in Spain] I have seen for this book will ship it within Spain for 8-9€. So if they have a friend/relative who can receive the mailed book and hold it for them until they arrive, it would reduce the shopping cost immensely. 
However, if it is shipped to the friend/relative's home or business that's great, but if it means that the friend/relative has to go wait in a post office line to get the package, they might [understandably] not be so hot on the idea

In my case, my friend in Madrid is already holding something I bought on ebay.es a few weeks ago [used espresso machine same brand as I have used daily for 9 years]:

Good News folks:


Bass posted a message about Montserrat having a new web page [and it came in on Monserrat's Facebook page]

I saw this on his Llibre [book] page:
[  http://www.sonmutnou.com/llibre.htm  ]

Próximament...

ESTAM TREBALLANT PER PASSAR EL LLIBRE A FORMAT ELECTRÒNIC

Which [I am pretty sure] means

"We are working to convert the book to electronic format"

That's incredible news.