Here's nice info on those Shirazi bone dry figs including the grading system for their quality and a list of the different cultivars used. I definitely agree with their grading system--I finally found some top Grade A ones (wide open cracks, light skin color)--yes much nicer flavor man!!! So hard to go back to the regular store bought ones but they're all nice. Funny though since split figs have negative connotation with us usually. It is the same with pomegranate. Here if a pomegranate splits--it is no good. There--split pomegranates are the best flavored ones and are nicknamed "smiling pomegranates" they've split naturally--not coerced by the rain. The growing conditions there are a different world than here but I still loved browsing through the pics and info. Gave me some mini-ideas... they never fertilize fig as expected but they DO replace the surrounding soil. Perhaps if I ever let one tree grow huge that gives massive production/use up of nutrients I would consider that.

Of note, most of the Persian figs can do well on the East coast, come from northern Iran... closer to the Caspian. Estahban's stuff would be better for southern California and the likes.

http://www.giahs.org/fileadmin/templates/giahs/PDF/Fig_traditional_system_Final_.pdf

Thanks, hope I can view this on my smartphone, won't have a computer for a few more days.

I wonder what kind of figs are these that are splitting and are superior to the non-splitting..
maybe the intense heat prevents the splitting ones from going sour and adds to their flavour?

does somone understand this: "Traditionally for selecting a suitable land of 

Greetings, my guess would be that richer, more fertile soil would contain a lot more organic plant matter, and in general be moister, etc., compared with sandier, dry soil with less plant/organic matter. Consequently, a handful of rich/moist soil would tend to stick more to a kerchief than soil less rich, dry, sandy, and be one indicator that this area would be better for fig production. Anyhow, that's my take on that info.

Regards

so richer soils in their case prevents splitting probably...
interesting..

starting to take handkerchif to the garden- my wife will think i am realy crazy :)

Very interesting article and pictures...thanks for sharing.

Interesting read . Thanks for sharing this.

Excellent article. Enjoy reading it. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Navid.

Great find, specially that its written in English. Totally different growing methods than most Mediterranean countries. My understanding, overly pollinated figs can also cause splitting. Splitting is not only caused by access moisture.

Thank you for showing this information

Very interesting simple tech paper tell us a lot of the fig culture in Iran in that particular district
I have not read all in detail but will do it soon-

Those split dry figs are expressly cut in that pattern, to open up the pulp to get direct sun and loose humidity very rapidly.  By the time the figs are ready for sun drying those farmers do not have much time and much sun left, so the figs are cut. This is my understanding

Even in our days farmers in the various places around the Med basin do it to maintain traditions and get better quality on some cultivars.
In my area, one particular variety (Quarteira) is so syrupy that the full fruit is impossible to dry even under direct sun radiation ...to  dry this fig it has to be cut open to expose the pulp to the sun .

Francisco

In all my years i have never bought a split dried fig.. seems interesting.

Very happy you guys enjoyed this find as much as I did!!

My interpretation is this:

The split figs are definitely desirable! Those Grade A's with no split are not very good tasting (the ones where you just see the slightly open eye--zero split) and sometimes when you buy them bugs are hiding in them--not fig wasp!! Like random worms spoiling them. Even amongst the Grade AA, some are way better than others. IMHO I used to prefer Turkish dried figs that got the moisture and are big... UNTIL recently when I found a batch of the top Grade AA of these dried figs... those were divine!!! They taste way finer, got big splits so look way more fancy instead of duds, and bring in tons more money--last I checked FIVE times more expensive and much harder to find in the bazaars--gotta have the elder's with the hook ups find those for me :D.

They are saying that the more fertile the ground AND the more mature the tree--the more nicely split the fig will be. That is the locals' belief. I love this article because it's actually documents the the local grower beliefs. Perhaps the (major in my book) improvement in flavor is correlated to the trees just being that much more mature and the soil being more rich--all tied together to the more split.... Francisco's information about hand splitting also suggests that better split could mean better/faster drying/concentrating of flavor. Although I am not sure if there is any hand splitting going on here... that is big news to me--never heard of it, very interesting. I don't know if there is lack of dry sun there even late season--after all this same region southern Fars near Persian Gulf is where date palm originates from which fully ripe stage dates is later season than fig and dates too require even more ridiculous amounts of dry heat.

"By experience they make smaller mouth and bigger bottom of the hole." That statement confused me at first and still does a little. The big bottom hole I think is the actual cavity depth--that should be very nice and big and deep. The mouth I'm not sure what they're referring to--perhaps the petal like mouth should be kept tidy and small? I don't really think they mean the opening/window to the deep cavity should be kept small but not sure... This could be a total typo/mistranslation because later they use the Farsi word for mouth (see below) as a lower grade when small mouth... perhaps they really meant the petals?

BTW the more I read the more I think my Shiraz Green (http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Shiraz-Green-Leaf-Photos-6294169) will end up being the Sabz variety cited throughout these articles which will necessitate the wasp. He is doing well though.

Anything lower than Grade AA is no good IMO. They don't translate the subcategories of Grade AA... my personal loose translation would be:

Fig 20 from right to left (best to worst) is: "Parak" (petals); "Ghonche" (cluster; like a small cluster of grapes at the bottom); "Dahan baste" (closed mouth), then A, then B, then red loss.

I never had had the petals before (first pic)... they are insanely nice!! The cluster ones are good too... but the petals ones are now my favorite dried figs of all including all other types--from California, Turkey...

Grade AA Parak (petals):

 
Grade AA Ghonche (Cluster) [can buy these in the US, best you can get here I think]

Thank you very much for posting this!   It contains some very useful information and good photographs!

Ingevald

Thanks for the info. much different from the ones i buy here which are never split.
anyhow got me want some figs and coffe :)