last few weeks, i have been giving away my fig trees. duplicates. i make sure they are good ones. not super desirable. but good ones with good taste. most desirable ones, i only have one or two of each. 

but funny thing is.. no one asked me what fig tree they were. i guess many people just think that figs are all the same. 

all of them were grateful that i gave them the trees and asked me how to grow them and how to keep them alive... what soil to use where to plant them. typical planting instructions. but no one asked me what they taste like.

it's just... not sure what the word is.

but we go on and on about the taste, how the figs will do in certain area. how cold hardy the tree is.. i guess that's the difference between general public and people who are little unstable and collect large number of fig tress..  

Pete,

It is not fare to compare the normal people and the fignuts like us :)

I gave a nice VdB to my babysitter and she was very happy but didn’t ask about the taste as well. 
Although she knew that the figs could be dark, ripe, and green (they probably need some more time)  :D

igor, yeah.. and i was all ready to explain where their trees came from.. the history behind them and what's unique about them. oh well. 

It is no different with any other "fruit".  People see green, red, and yellow apples, most don't care that they may be different cultivars, same with pomegranates, who cares what the cultivar is when you buy one at the market.  Grapes, red, green, red.  Oranges navel or not, grapefruit red or white, how many people know the differnce between a Duncan a Ruby Red, or a Ruby star.  Watermelons, long striped, or round striped, or round solid green?  Most people only care if it is ripe or not.

When collectors get together they discuss whether one is better than the other, my wife only cares if we have any left and when will the next ones will be ripe.

figs are even more of an enigma because most people have never seen a ripe one.

Great reply, Danny.  My exact thoughts.  And my wife and kids have the same question!  Well, the kids demand.  "more! more!"  :)

The general public does not have a clue.
I can count myself in that group before I joined this site.
I had eaten figs as a kid at my grandparents and it was these memories that drove me to find this site in the hopes there happened to be A fig that was more cold resistant I could grow up here.
Little did I know,,,,,,

Back in 2007, the year I started to grow figs, all I knew, or cared about was whether those expensive, store-bought figs were either back or green, or, fresh or dried.  I couldn't give a rat's butt about what variety I was eating.  If the fig was sweet, I was satisfied.  If my neighbors gave me some of their crappy, latexy flavored, backyard figs, I ate those too.

Back then, as a brand new grower, I decided to join the Garden-Web Fig Forum.  I read some postings and quickly realized that mentally ill people could actually belong to a giant "fig club".  Slowly but surely, I became preoccupied with things like....growing media, fertilizer ratios, watering schedules, sun exposure, "taste", Belleclare this, and Edible Landscaping that...etc. etc.  Now, I'm 'certifiable' too.

Pete, unless your are a fanatic, (like we are), the blase, casual grower just wants to know if a fig tree will produce sweet, black or, white figs, and just how much work is needed to keep the tree alive.  If they could maybe water it once in a while, and then pick ripe figs, that's the extent of their interest.  Period. 

They are enrolled in "Figs-101" while we are working on our PHDs.


Frank

Like my Father used to tell me "...There are no uninteresting things. Only uninterested people."

Pete that's quite an interesting observation. I would think that because of lack of knowledge and because figs are still somewhat rare contributes to it.
I think Danny K nailed it right on. As time passes i wouldn't be surprised if you were asked more about them by the people you gave them to.

Pete here i have noticed similar but when the figs come out they start to get excited and ask more questions little by little
and after they are tasted well more questions !

Its just hard for some to digest all the information we tell them and they will come back
with some of the same, just wait till they taste some and you perhaps mention there are better
out there, especially some of the finer smaller DARK TYPES !!!

Hi bullet08,
As long as they produce fruits, people won't care about the details, especially if they cant' buy or get trees from a different source.
But be sure, that they'll get back to you if the trees don't fruit !

It's a lack of knowledge, same with every fruit and vegetable. Most people just think what they get at the store is what it is...little do they know!

Heirloom tomatoes...tree ripened peaches...fresh figs...raspberries ripened in the sun...oh my is it summer yet?!

When I started collecting figs I would get cuttings in the mail. Months later my wife finally asked, "how do you eat the sticks?" I was baffled. I asked "what are you taking about?" She had no idea that the cutting was the tree and not the fruit. I was clearly starting from scratch. So to ask her the differences in taste, absolutely no idea. That is your general public. That's ok she can learn.

When someone asks how HD, Lowes, TyTy, etc. and their suppliers get away with mislabeling (or blanket labeling) trees... The answer lies in this post.

It seems so strange when people don't really understand that there are so many different varieties. I think most people think fig trees just grow fig newtons.

Figs are the thing we all ( in this forum) have in common.
It's a passion.
We all have a curiosity, a yearning.
We fly these sticks all over the country.
We tend to them and give them all the things they can't ask for, but need.
We share the plants and fruits, and slowly, we change minds.

People out there have their own passions that we don't understand.

Those who are open minded see what it means to us, and some around us will be converted.
Pete, don't despair.
You are sharing a wonderful gift, and of all those great plants you've been giving away, at least one will change a person's mind about figs.
They will lurk annonimously in the forum, then they'll become a member, and soon they'll be changing at least one other person.
Like our children and our loved ones, figs become our legacy, and long after we're gone, one of our plants will tell a little bit of our story.

The kindness of gifting a plant that doesn't just sit there, sucking up fertilizer, is not lost on any of us.

I think many people don't understand that things can taste very different based on variety.  They have been so conditioned by tasteless, mass produced food that even a little flavor and fresh is a big thing.  Where I lived in NJ the same corn was sold on both sides of the road.  The road going toward New York City had old sweet corn and the road going away had freshly picked.  The farmer told me the New Yorker's thought the old corn was fantastic because it was so much better than what they normally got.  The locals on the other hand would have complained and gone to another stand had they got the old stuffs o he provided fresher stuff.
People often notice when they get something that tastes really good but sometime they just think wow I got something really good but don't wonder why.
Sometimes things can be too intense for newbies.  When I first gave my mom fresh eggs she complained that they tasted too eggie and my veggies had too much flavor.  Oh well

just for the fun of it, i'm going to take well ripen CdDB to those people i gave trees to. lol

blasphemy! we need to find the way to get rid of the disease. we need to find other places where those fig will grow. it's wrong to make new figs expecting them to replace the old ones.

old is good. new is.. well.. hmm.. NOT AS GOOD!