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Article about an ambitious couple trying to start a production of figs in Eastern Canada.

If anyone has any skills in French this could be of some interest to you.

http://www1.radio-canada.ca/actualite/semaineverte/ColorSection/agriculture/040222/figues.shtml

http://www.ethnologie.chaire.ulaval.ca/index.php?id=26&pratiqueid=172&no_cache=1

the first link is an article with a video presentation of a family growing figs in Quebec.

the second part is the description of their business and how to contact them.

Babelfish translation of the first link :
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At a St-Stanislas small farm...
The Batiscan river is a thousand miles away from the Mediterranean. At the same time, the two places can sometimes resemble each other. At the very least for Stathis Petridis and Lina De Rossi which left Laval four years ago to live on a small farm in St-Stanislas in Mauricie.

They dreamed of a life in the countryside for them and their children. For the moment, they earn their living with a small bakery but they have another project in mind.

Actually, they cherish the dream to plant a little  of Greece and Italy, their country of origin, on their small farm. They planted fig trees.

A Greek friend got rid of his fig trees and the couple recovered them and they made cuttings. They were plunged in the books to document themselves on the culture and they finally planted sixty fig trees. An experiment most uncommon in Quebec.

Carefully, they hold a register for each tree. They take notes on its development, its production and its fruits. But Quebec is not Greece, the culture of the fig tree is not done in the same way. The fig tree is sensitive to the cold: one must cultivate it with a shelter from the cold of the winter, in a greenhouse. This is a question of protecting the tree and its fruits during their dormancy because the fig tree bears fruits even in winter. Fruits appeared late in autumn which will finish their push in spring. The greenhouse thus should be heated all winter and to maintain it with 10 Celsius degrees. The costs of heating are obviously very high.

One will thus need patience and to await the maturity of the trees before the culture is profitable. One year rather modest… The project of Stathis and Lina can appear eccentric. But it is necessary to know, at the same time, a fig tree with maturity can produce a hundred years. In their most insane dreams, they imagine in fact their 60 fig trees collapsing under the weight of the fruits. Each fig tree could carry up to 2000 fruits.

This year, harvest will be more modest because of various problems encountered at the beginning of culture but all the hopes are allowed for next year. “Ideally, one would like to sell fresh fruits because this is completely different from the dry fruit, to which one adds sugar then that also modifies the true taste of the fruit… Then in jam, the taste is modified, one adds sugar. The best way to have the true taste of the fig  is to eat it fresh. This is divine!” Stathis Petridis

The_Montreal_fig
Thanks for posting it. It is very encouraging. Let us Fig4Funnies from Canada help them gradually diversify in terms of varieties from within Canada if they want to do so (or may be they have access to more varieties than we do!).
What is the temperature zone of their location?

They are between zone 4a & 4b. The area is way colder then Ottawa or Montreal!

I sent them an email to see if they are still in business. Their farm is advertised as a tourist destination in their area.

A few trivial facts from their television interview:

In the video they said their electricity bill is expensive to keep the greenhouse warm. The temperature is kept at 50 F during winter. One day they "cooked up" the fig plants by forgetting to open the curtains of the greenhouse. Their experiment started in 1999 and they kept trying by error and trial.

 Myself, I keep my dormant figs at an average of 37 F. I am sure they could save on the electricity bill by lowering the temperature during dormancy. Also, the idea of the Bulgarian gentlemen could help them out with a homemade geo-thermal setting.  These are my small suggestions but they are entirely based what they said in the video. In addition, it was made in 2004 so many things could have changed since.

I have no idea if they know anything about figs4fun and others but I will find out! Who knows there might be potentially interesting cutting trades.

If anyone is interested I received a response.

It was very short and sweep and most of my questions did not receive any reply.

They said they are still in business and are still growing figs. I also found out they had no idea of Adriano in Ontario. From this I can deduct they are not aware of Figs4fun in any way.

The email ended with a thank you and the rest of my questions got ignored :(

Maybe they are busy taking care of the fig trees...

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