Whenever I 'find' a fruit tree, I add it to My Places in Google Maps with the title FRUIT_NAME in CITY_NAME :: 1234 STREET_NAME along with the name of the owner and a description of the tree(s). To date, I have fourteen places in my FIGS in TALLAHASSEE category. Several of the trees here are Celeste. On most days life is good when you find a fig tree but yesterday it was a grand day because I met FMD - backyard grower supreme - for the first time and he was growing some uncommon figs for this area. Here is a short form of the story:
His home sits on several acres and has a very healthy supply of fruit trees; many that he personally planted 8-9-10 years ago: fig, Asian pear, jujube, blueberry, pomegranate, mulberry, plum, peach, citrus, and several others (a few from Just Fruits and Exotics) than I have forgotten. These trees surround his house. I think his most prevalent is an unknown green (-to-brown) fig with a red (or amber; don't recall) interior. It was not ripe so I did not sample it. He has several around his property. I found these two trees [Herman2 identified as Alma] the most impressive:
There is a multi-football field size area just behind his home and then beyond that, through a clearing in the forest is his 'man cave' where another football field of open space lined with figs, persimmon, and pear trees on the north side and protected by a tree line and a lake. Here is a 18'x15' (easily) Celeste that is growing in the space.
There are several Brown Turkey and a few more Celeste trees growing in this area. Most interesting was out chat about his latest 'project' and the walk up to his 'pride and joy'. Before we got there, I tasted a ripe fig from the offspring of this mother tree and then later, I had this fruit from the mother tree. FMD said he purchased it on-line about 6-7 years ago. It was not a sweet fig - not as sweet as Celeste but it was juicy, rich, and a complex berry like flavor with a nice crunch. I needed more than two fruit to say anything more and there are more to ripen.This Unknown Purple [Franks call this fig NJ Red] is definitely a good fig. I will take more and better pictures during my next visit. We ate the few ripe ones and luckily I was thinking out my forum friends and thought about taking a picture after I bit this one in half but before I devoured the rest.
Then we continued over to his pride and joy. During his most recent trip to Europe and North Africa, he acquired cuttings from Morocco, Canary Islands, Malaga, Genoa, and Amalfi. Here they are growing in partial shade.
As we headed back towards his home, I tasted his another Unnamed Red that was acquired about six years ago. The fig was dense (not as much as Hunt), sweet (not as sweet as his Unknown Purple now known as NJ Red) but equally as complex. The flavor had a fig-like quality rather than hints of berry. Tasting more figs will help me resolve the description. It is another very good fig. Note: There were more of these figs that were ripe so I took a few home and thus was able to take a few photographs with a camera that did not perform other functions (like phone, GPS, video, audio, etc)...so they look a little better.
I was a fun hour that seemed more like three not because it was hot but because FMD is a nice guy. I will return with a digital camera, more questions, a shoe box for figs, and a paper bag for jujubes and pears. It was a good day to be amongst the living and the figs.