I started this topic in another thread but decided it may be significant enough to have it's own thread.

Here's info from you neighbor to the south: http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/spfiles/SP307-I.pdf

Hope that helps a little.

Thanks pitanga I'll have to shoot them an email.

Jon
The reference you provided talks about Brown Turkey as:
"high quality fruit that are fine-grained, juicy and sweet".
I guess you still have not got a Brown Turkey plant fitting this description!

i would say that my BT are sweet, juicy (almost to the point of watery).  they're definitely not rich.  they aren't very seedy, almost no seeds at all, and i don't know that i'd call them fine-grained, but ... my tree is also only ~3yrs old.

Ottawan,

It is quite simple. Those things are written by people who haven't been exposed to real figs. They live in places where seasons are too short to grow the figs of paradise, such as Black Madiera. OR, they have BT trees to sell.

That is how I got into collecting figs. I wanted a few (yes few) more good ones, like my Vista. Every nursery catalog I ever read claimed that the 3 varieties which they sold were the greatest on earth. I knew that wasn't true, so I started collecting, to try them for myself, and to see what was hype, and what was real. 500 varieties later, there are still 490 (maybe more) that are better than BT.

My suspicion, unverified, is that BT became popular because it grew rapidly to a large tree, and had a large crop of large figs, and when they were canned, as a method of preservation (either commercially or by a home-canner), there was enough sugar added to make them sweet. The important word was large, not "awesome".

Not that I have an opinion one way or the other...

No personal offense intended to any BT lovers out there. My wife is one of those.

Heny lives in that area.

Jon--no offense taken! I still love my BT, but have to admit that the only figs I've ever eaten are BT, Black Mission, and some kind of white fig when I was a kid (also canned Kadotas, some commercially-dried figs my dad used to buy in bulk, and of course, Fig Newtons--but they obviously don't really count if they're not fresh). I figure that if I like the BT now, and the others are so much better, it can only go up from here! I can't wait to try some of the "gourmet" varieties I've heard about on f4f.

Who is Heny? I couldn't find that username in the search engine.

I think his username is hyllel

I thought Henry lived in Mississippi somewhere around Jackson??? Maybe not.

Texan, you may be right. Hmm, my memory might be going bad!

Hi Jose, don't feel bad---mine doesn't work but about 1/2 the time!HA!

loslunasfarms & Fatnsassytexan
The only time memory loss or dim memory can cause problem to others here is when you are taking cuttings and labeling them.
I might have read somewhere that if one crunches on the seeds of fresh Brown Turkey it might improve the memory. I have not crunched on too many Brown Turkey figs so I don't remember where I read it. This could make up for other deficiencies if Brown Turkey has any.

I've crunched a lot of seeds of fresh Brown Turkey figs, but I can't remember why I'm even telling you this....

Ottawan & TucsonKen, I like that line of thought. Maybe Brown Turkey has a redeeming factor after all?

Tim

Looks like I've already found a couple more people with fig trees in my area. My son & I were out and about on Friday & as I was making a turn from one side street to another something that looked like fig leaves caught my eye. As I got a closer look, sure enough, it was a fully leaved tree & even had some purple-ish black figs on it which is a little suprising since it is November.

Since I knew I had made casual acqaintence with these folks a time two before I just couldn't resist but to go up & ask them about it. The lady was very nice. Although she didn't know the variety she said she'd gotten it a couple years earlier from a local roadside vendor. The tree was about 5' or so and the figs looked to be a little bigger than a quarter for the most part.

I think I'll go back by there in a day or two to see if she would mind if I took a few photos to help her ID it. She said she had another one in the back and that it was a yellow variety. She said she'd gotten this one from a local indivdiual who brought it back from Monrovia-I think. 

She told me where this other fellow lived so I took a drive down his street and his tree could easily be seen from the street. It was growing in a large bush form. This lady also said he was in the habit of rooting cuttings from his tree & giving them away to friends & neighbors. Maybe I'll meet him one day and find out more about the tree's origins & type.

Now I'm looking forward to spring more than ever so I can keep a closer eye out for others who are growing figs in my town. I think I'm addicted already Hee Hee! Not a bad addiction to have I might add ;).