Fig Link No. 65

oilye oyl !
I never tried it.
Some fig people did.
From what I heard, figs did not taste soo good...

I have done this practice only once as a desperate measure. Success was 50/50,     O.k 20/80.
20% being the success rate.
But I used a Q-tip and rubbed it around the eye, I guess I goofed.

Hopefully I won't need to resort to this practice this year.
But that extra virgin olive oil will be on stand by.

My grandfather used to do it in early summer to get an early main crop.
I've done it around august and all my oiled figs ripened at the same time a week after being oiled.
The trick is to rub the fig with olive oil, I don't even touch the eye. The sun has to be still warm enough to heat up the oil.
My dad was jealous that I was able to do it, and he wasn't successful although he was the one that taught me, he seen his father do it in the old country.
The fig has to be mature enough as well, if it's still undeveloped it will not ripen, the fig has to look almost full size.

Yes you can make them ripe faster using olive oil but you can't make them taste just as good,if you do.
This is done if you intend someone else to eat the figs(as when you sell them to a restaurant).
Best Bet is to reaserch and find early cultivars.
For you Jon,and other hot dry climate I advice Florea, fig,and you will be 3 weeks ahead,in getting,main crop figs, ripe,without any oilling.
And even better let's find a fig early like Florea and tasty,like,Madeira Black.
This should be our goal.
Out of over 200 common cultivars,in existence,,I have no doubt there are many more early cultivars waiting to be discovered.
H2

Of course, in my previous post, I was mainly trying to
be (somewhat) funny!

Coming from the mid Med. Sea area, I do LOVE olive oil.
I actually buy it by the (gallon) can, and maintain a
small olive bottle of it with that (funny) "oilye oyl"
pic. "pasted" on it .

One good oldie oo simple sandwich recipe:

Two slices of FRESH good bread (I prefer hard crust).
Slice an average tomato and squeeze/spread on bread, including seeds, skin and all.
Put some (maybe-a-lot) olive oil on top and sprinkle some with sea-salt and fresh
black pepper on top on all. ... try it and enjoy...

Some other good stuff can be added; e.g., yum-yum capers...

[Hobz biz-zejt]

I didn't notice the olive oil on mine that much. I guess if you do apply oil into the fig eye it will definitely change the flavor greatly. For the thick skin cultivars you can always peel the skin if it was oiled.

Gorgi, [Hobz biz-zejt] which translates to bread with oil, is very healthy.

Speaking of olive oil here is a good article on olive oil and fraud in the industry its 4 pages good reading.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FKA/is_2_65/ai_96416671/

Bass, Your translation is very correct (good understanding!).

Diesler, Thanks for the good OO article...
As for the red-cardinal-bird-thing, you are right, but I think you meant ref to:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4377426

George your right , gee willikers i was going back and forth and went in a circle!

I do not mean that the figs get a flavor of olive oil,and that is why they are inferior.
I love olive oil in food.
When applied to fig eye,the fruit loses all natural flavor and sugar because it get ripe artificially much sooner.
The flavor and sweetness is acumulated at the end of the ripening cycle,and that is why,they are how they are.
I did oil some of mine,they did get ripe,faster,but I will never do it again.
I also draped plastic enclosure to finish ripening in the Fall,and that resulted in the same inferior ripe figs.
So greenhouse Ripe in the Fall also produces inferior figs.
It does look that figs like to be free,left alone and ripe outside to be at their best.
H2