Hi everyone I am new to posting on this forum but I have been following it for several months have just not had time to post a proper introduction.

First, I'd like to give credit where credit is due. Thank you all so much for the wonderful and thorough information on this forum. I am an avid fruit grower in northern VA zone 7a who frequents the GardenWeb Fruits and Orchard forum but would like to start participating more on this forum as well! I have several fig varieties  (with the exception of a few they are all quite young). I am also helping out with adding fruit to local schoolyard gardens and figs are among our favorite fruit variety to put in for their relatively low maintenance and of course their deliciousness. I am excited to learn more as we trial more figs and become more active on this forum! 

Here are some of my babies. An unripened VdB and unripened raspberries I had to pick off for brother as he was only in town for the day and an unknown large fig. Interior shown 2nd pic. Very good flavor period but especially so for a large fig and despite the eye has given no problems in humid Virginia. I have pics of the leaves and all that I should post later for some of the fig wizards to ID it or at least say what it is likely genetically related to. It is not Kadota, Peter's Honey or any of the regulars I know of... I believe it is from either Lebanon or Palestine. Thanks for looking and looking forward! 

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your fabulous introduction!  Your figs look beautiful!  I like your penchant for sharing with local schoolyard gardens!

Suzi

Welcome to the forum! and thanks for the pics

 Pete

Welcome to the forum! Your unknown looks like a Brunswick. Glad to hear it works for you there.

welcome to the forum
Thank you for sharing with the school program, we need more of that!

Unknown large fig most likely is Brunswick.  Leaves would help everyone confirm.  Brunswick is one of a few varieties that has distinct leaves.

Nice pictures.
Welcome to this good FF.
You will enjoy it being here...

Welcome, this is a good forum, full of very nice people. And from what you said you should fit right in. Very cool that you are giving trees to schools.  

Welcome to the fun forum.

Thanks everybody for the warm welcome!

Looking at leaves of Brunswick online, yes you guys are probably right it's Brunswick. It's story is it was brought by my mom's friend's mother from the Middle East in the 1950's however so it may be very related or from same origin. It also seems very rain resistant to spoilage and flavor dilution, which is not what Brunswick is famous for... so not 100% sure it is Brunswick but likely.

For schoolyard figs, the main concerns have been (of course, not having a bland variety goes without say): productivity and bearing late enough that school is in session. Marseilles VS Black would be a perfect choice but I believe it may ripen a tad too early, though we are going to test it.

The goal is to really go for the gold with the kids and introduce them at a young age to outstanding tasting fruit--to motivate them to enjoy eating well (as opposed to becoming apathetic towards eating right when they encounter time and again cardboard tasting store bought peaches, for example).

Actually figs are the only fruit I think we won't have finalized variety default selections yet, and will take another ~3 years. MVSB, JH Adriatic, Stella, IC, RdB are all contenders among others with pros/cons we'll have fun weighing out over the next couple years!

Please add my welcome as well.

this big fig is a "wow", this picture makes me want to have one now! When would you have suckers/cuttings and mind trading... I am in line for it. 

That's so great, that you're introducing kids to figs. If I knew about figs in grade school..imagine how much bigger my collection would be!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes!

Grasa, hopefully I will soon have some propagation material of this plant. And will also post pictures of the leaves when I get a chance. It appears related to Khurtmani/Brunswick/Magnolia in both fruit and leaves. A friends mother brought it from the middle east in the 50's. I have it on top of a decent incline so that must be helping in this regard--but it shows very very good resistance to splitting and flavor dilution with rain. Brunswick seems to be notorious for splitting in our growing conditions and my incline is not that remarkable so I believe this to be a related variety more resistant to rain/humidity. But I am not sure yet. I have one NOT on an incline but it is in partial shade, also shows good resistance to rain but not much productivity to sample on due to the partial shade.

I had similar issues with my big tree and shade.  bad place to hav planted. I am considering relocating it. It i over 20feet tall, a big task. I am going to try a baby of it in other location of the yard and see how that goes.

I am not kidding nd please count me in line for a newbie.

Sharing with kids and teaching kids is so important, and I hope to emulate your vision in my local community!  For a child to see the roots in a clear cup, and watch that tree grow and taste the fruit is a living lesson!!

I really don't wish to say how many grand children I have, but they are legion!  They range in age from 3 weeks to 11 years.  I didn't expect my kids to be so prolific, but I expect my fig trees to be very prolific :-))

My grand kids live in places that are a little too cold for figs, and their parents are busy with work, and not into growing things.  School is the best place, so I will donate where i can!!

Suzi