Bugs, That is so true. If we would have had some bad weather, maybe it would of helped.
I know you are at your limit already. But if you want you can help me out with taking some:)

Art, I wish I could help you out. I am having trouble with Birds. First the Baltimore Oriels, then the Cat

Birds came, they will not give up, they have taught the Red Birds now. The bird net is not working and

chasing is being a pain, I can not be hear all day. I am about ready to give up.

Wonderful post. Thanks for taking the time to post your ratings.

Looks Fantastic, I like the rating system. if you and your wife like Sal's Corleone you should get both Tim Clymer Enola Italian #1, and Si Emma both produce dark sweet figs and all 3 originated within 200 miles of each other. Sal's Corleone was discovered in Corleone in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. Tim Clymer Enola Italian #1, and Si Emma are from Mt Etna just east of there.  keep the pictures coming and taste test too. 

also the Mt Etna type figs tend to be more hardy

That's a great collection of figs, Nice.

Art, maybe instead of you and your wife going over the upper limit of the 1-10 scale, you can use a rating system similar to that used by my dragonfruit breeder/grower friend I visited 10 days ago.  He worked for UC Riverside in avocado breeding (and maybe other crops?) for a number of years and was very disciplined in his approach.  We got to sit down with him and taste some of his great creations and rate them.  He used a 1-10 scale but had never given a score higher than 8++ even though I think he had the best dragonfruit I had ever tasted.  His vision of perfection is something he is likely never to achieve.  Anything below an 8-- gets kicked out of his program.  Maybe he'll get something into a 9 some day and he will be elated.  He has a pretty good reputation in the USDA and UC systems, it seems.  Both John Preece (Head Researcher at USDA Davis) and Louise Ferguson (helped manage fig breeding efforts in the UC system) knew of him when I mentioned his name to them this past Saturday.  Something worth considering, IMO.

Hi kubota1,
Nice harvest.
At some point the 1-10 scale is just a general approach and perhaps you should go 1-15 scale .
Something interesting in my opinion is really rank the figs ones compared to the others . Adding the -- -+ ++ is a good approach.
That will help you keep a difference in between the 4 "11" ranked figs .
Some comments are still welcome with the mark.
Size of the fig, and productivity of the tree are important as well ... At least for me .

I'm surprised of your marking of lda - by memory, lda has a fig class on her own... I'm still waiting on mine, and will post pics if they ever ripen ...
As for your high markings, I understand you well ! Figs are really damn good fruits !

Good suggestions JD, Art has provided us with loads of photos and information. This is something us newbies desperately need if we have limited time, space and MONEY. I do not want several variety of figs that have the same growth habits and taste the same. There are still a few varieties that I want but with limited funds, I do not need to purchase similar varieties. Very valuable information. Now please tell us some alternates that taste similar to the rare(new or expensive, whatever they are labeled) with the same or better growth habits. Thanks.

Harvey,  That was my intention when I started rating. It just got difficult when we thought a fig couldn't get any better we gave it a 10. Well then came along a couple that just blew us away.

Wayne, I think at the end of the season I will make a list of my must haves.

Thanks Art, that list will definitely help.

Great post Art.

Shailesh,  I've had a bad year with my HC as far as figs dropping. I like it a lot. Last year I had a load of them. It usually gets a high rating and is a keeper.

In tea tastings, what you do is have a cumulative total...

For example...
Is the taste strong? 1 2 3
Is the taste nice? 1 2 3
Is the soup thick? 1 2 3
Is the soup texture nice? 1 2 3
Is the aroma strong? 1 2 3
Does the tea make you feel good, relaxed? 1 2 3
Does the tea have a long aftertaste? 1 2 3

And you weigh all of these traits.  Perhaps it's easy/cheap to get a tea with thick soup, so you multiply the number by .75.  It might be hard to get a tea with great aftertaste, so you multiply by 3.  You add all of these up, and then get an depth ranking that you can apply with some rigor every season of new teas.

The same thing can be done with figs
Is the fig sweet? 1 2 3 (or brix readings)
Is the fig acid? 1 2 3
Does the fig have dense taste? 1 2 3
Does the fig produce a honey plug? 1 2 3
Does the fig have aroma? 1 2 3
How tough is the skin? 1 2 3
How close to preferences is the texture of the fig? 1 2 3
How productive is the fig? 1 2 3
How large is the fig? 1 2 3
How closed is the eye? 1 2 3

I'd automatically demote any fig that doesn't regularly make figs more than 35g, so small figs like RdB, Champagne, or St Rita would start from a deficit, and large figs 60g+ that are still flavorful would start ahead.  Do things like that.

I've seen some pomegranate rankings do things this way as well.

very nice!
Thanks

Do you think you could tell the different varieties apart in a blind taste test?  reason I ask, I've probably only tasted a total of 10 varieties so far, and it's very hard for me to distinguish them.  I think I could probably tell the difference between how a light colored fig and dark colored fig taste.  That's about it.  Is this just me?  Will my taste become more refined as I taste more and more?  So far I think the visual differences can be more pronounced than the flavor differences.  Figs are so sweet it is hard for me to detect slight flavor differences.  Sometimes the sugar overwhelms everything else.  Or maybe I just haven't tasted the right fig yet.

Also, I think this is a great post but I am confused about 11s and 12s on a 10 point scale.  To me a 1 to 10 scale means a 1 is the worst fig you've ever tasted and a 10 the best.  Maybe you tasted the Figo Preto, it was as good as you remembered any fig tasting, absent of any flaws, and then you rated it a 10.  Then you tasted the Genovese Nero and it was better, and you felt you had to give it a better rating, so you went up to 11.  However, if this is the case, I suggest you might want to just revise the Figo Preto down to a 9 and give the G N the 10 it deserves.  Otherwise you might get up to 15 or 20 if you kept tasting better and better figs, which would be a little silly.

If it has any flaws at all, no matter how small, I don't see how it can get a 10.  And how can something be 2 points better than something that is flawless? 

EDIT:  I see that you never actually said it's a 10 point scale, I guess myself and others just assumed this to be the case.  So is it a 10 point scale, a 12 point scale, or a 15 point scale?  I guess it doesn't really matter.  Still great info and photos.

Thanks for the info.  I like your rating scale, I can really tell which varieties stuck out as winners.