Hello to all!

I'm Monserrat Pons from Spain, and I'm admired with all the comments you have in this forum about my job!  You know a lot about me...

I never can imagine that my job would be worldwide!

I start my job 14 years ago with ancient varieties of fig trees in risk of genetic erosion and I recovered and new ones will be discovered as well, incorporating them into the experimental field called Son Mut Nou.

First, I started only recovering the fig trees of the Balearic Islands, then we follow with the Mediterranean varieties and now I'm searching worldwide! Our goal is keeping varieties of fig trees on the islands, which belongs to our culture and history.

And to get the book, I want to explain you, the book now is selling in Spain, and in internet for international buyers, but the problem is the weight of the heavy book and the shipping costs are higher than the price of the book, this is the problem. If anyone of you will go to Spain, I can tell where they can find the book and bring to the US without paying the shipping costs. Or if any of you have a shipping company like UPS, you can bring here in Spain and then you pay your shipping costs to your company.

Thanks!

Monserrat Pons

Now we are working to translate the web page to the english, because a lot of people ask me in this language.

You can download in the web a pdf file of the first part of the book, about the experimental field, and we are working to put more, but it's a difficult job.

Hi Monserrat_pons,
Nice of you to come and post to the forum.
My wife was born in San tan der moved to Illanes and moved to Madrid when 11 years old at 14 her family came to the states. Me born in chicago my parents from Italy.
Always nice to hear from people for different parts of the world such as you here on the forum.
Best Health

Monserrat,
we appreciate all the work you did. Thank you for sharing all the information you have on figs.

Monserrat,

I will be in Baracelona for a couple of days in May.  I will then drive through Aragon, Pamplona and then stay in San Sebastian for many days, before leaving through Madrid.

If you can tell me some place in San Sebastian (near old part of town) to find your book, I would appreciate this!

I think you can't find in San Sebastian, Jason, beacuse this book is not in the Basque country.

The pospter web, a bussiness near my pharmacy has the book to sell in internet:

http://www.popster.es/htm/llibrefigueres.htm

Thanks, where may I find it while I am in Barcelona?  Specifically, I will be near Sabadell, but it is possible to travel anywhere within 50km-75km to find something.

Yee Haa!
Very recently, them fig-gods, did bless me with Montserrat's fig book.
And wow, what a modern fig book it is...
Plenty of fig pictures; 56+33+61+6+9 = 165 fig varieties.
Book measures ~12x8x1 inches and weighing ~4lbs.
Paper is of the glossy type, good for the eyes (pics) , bad for shipping (weight).
Pity, I cannot read Spanish, though I can pick a word or 2; but the pics make it all up.
Most fig names are new to me, most probably a language thing?
Highly recommended...

George im not good with computers but i wonder if there was a way for your eyes only to read if you could somehow photo copy them pages onto hardrive then use online translator and print out  450 pages .

You would be doing that though to the next century.

Maybe some computer guru knows of a easy way.

Best Health

No way I can do 450 pages!
(besides, it is copyright-illegal).
Even before you mentioned this,
(sensing some curious minds)
I was thinking about  how to "scan" a two page section,
"typical" of one (of the 165) fig different varieties.
That should be just enough as a [legal] "preview" shot.
I'll see what I can come up with, be patient, I am not
too much of PC savvy guy...

George  thats why i said "for your eyes only"  450 pages would be cumbersome to do for sure or 225 if double shot still is a lot but more do able.
If i had new my wifes language i would have bought that book just out of curiosity and some good reading which im sure it has.
Darn im just too stu nod ( dumb ) to learn another language .

Martin, sorry for the misunderstanding...
Working on a typical 2 page scan thing --- not easy!

Congrats Gorgi,
You see what I mean about this book?
It is not Spanish, it's Catalan it's written in.
The same fig gods blessed both of us.

Sorry for the poor quality scans! After a lot of effort;
this the best I can do - just enough to satisfy
any monkey-curious-george (as myself!)
to get a very basic idea/pic...

This is the "De La Reina" (Of the Queen) fig.
(note that there 2 scan/pics - click 1st right then 2nd left).

The best I can translate.
De la Reina

Grown in the fields between the olive groves, and surrounded by mountains.
The tree attains a great development, with a rounded crown. Has thick and long branches with very dense foliage. Have a long periods of harvest, and produces two crops, Brebas and main crop.

The figs are long conical in shape, they’re large, showy and stylish. They’re symmetrical in form. They are a dark color with purple or red neck with prominent cracks in the skin that is thin and soft to the touch. The flesh is light red and very tasty sweet and juicy. It is very resistant to rain and dew.

The leaves are mostly pentalobades and there are less than trilobades. margins are very marked, with an acute angle petiole.
The De la Reina fig originated in the grounds of the hermitage east.
For the appearance, quality and excellence of the Figs, they are worthy of being called The Queen, “De la Reina”.

Does anyone know if there is a way to get any of the products that Montserrat Pons i Boscana sells....even a tshirt?

I conversed with Monserrat by email today. He said that a translation of his book from Catalan into Spanish is underway. 

Good to know. He is also working on a new book on varieties from other regions as well. 

You can order here.  76.50 Euros with shipping, so about $100. 450 pages and a ton of photos.

Because the currently available edition of the book is written in Catalan [which is more closely-related to French than Spanish]  and a Spanish version is coming,...if I wanted a copy of the book for *reading purposes*, I might wait until the Spanish edition is available. It is a visual masterpiece, so if someone mainly wanted it for the pictures, perhaps the Catalan version would suffice

  I will talk to Monserrat and ask if he has an idea of when his book will be available in Spanish. 

Espero que la traducción esté lista para la Navidad! Voy a escribir una carta a Santa Claus y ser muy bueno y practicar mi español, por el momento :)

Since my Spanish is no better than my Catalan, it really didn't matter.

Here is a link to a short article in English about the book and Son Mut Nou:
http://mallorcaphotoblog.com/2011/10/01/the-wondrous-world-of-figs/
Here is a link to a PDF of the poster in the article:
http://miro.palmademallorca.es/documentos/D_198.pdf
A short excerpt from the article:

A total of 1,616 fig trees grow on the extended 15 hectares [37 acres] of
this finca, fig trees of a total of 367 fig varieties, of which 251 are
indigenous to Mallorca.  ...  I am told that Son Mut Nou is the place with
the largest number of fig varieties anywhere in the world.

Hi to all! Bass, Paul and more friends! I'm the son of monserrat and we have good notices for you, we have the book translated to spanish, but now is in the printing process, maybe in 2 weeks we have the book. We do a ebook version too and we sell in DvD for the worldwide customers. We can contact me at bpons@sonmutnou.com or sonmutnou.com or facebook fan page