I am in Maryland. I believe the original cutting I received 20 years ago, came from a fig tree in Penn..

I have attached some pics. The ones on the plate are extremely ripe.

Thank you, Scott

Off the top of my head it reminds me of my Sal Corleone. I will try to find some pictures.

Couldn't find pics of fruit but maybe you can compare leaves.

Italian Everbearing?

Hi Jason,

Thanks for going to all that trouble digging up the pic.

Hi Gorgi,

How you doing. You may remember me as you bought some cuttings of this last year. We tried to do this ID last year too, but I didn't have good fruit pics.  You also suggested G13 back then as a possibility.

I want to add that some years, I start harvesting fruit from this plant in the first week of August, and then the harvest increases straight thru until it's done around the end of September.

 
Scott

Yes, I now do see the resemblance to the Sal(C).

[I raise my hat  to Jason - right off my balding head, man I do need

some of that magic hair-tonic stuff!)

Remember that other people found this (or a similar) fig;

and it goes under different names/callings e.g.,

Aldo (Leon), GM#17 (muah), Brooklyn Dark (Bass), Sicilian Red (Al)

and now, of course, you...

The (in)famous Sal's Corleone is the one originating from BelleClare Nursery as BC#31.

Hi,

I am doing this off memory and it's not that good and last year's harvest was plagued by rain and poor weather....but. I remember the fruit being very juicy. The interior has a small cavity and is peachy possibly a little pink in color. The exterior was reddish- purplish with maybe a hint of green and little white freckles like on VDB. The eye rips open slightly on many and resembles a small star.

Lots of Brown Turkey traits in that one.  Even if it's SC/Aldo/SR/BD/GM17.  Fruit is smaller, but the void, pulp color, skin cracking, skin color, eye... much like my BT (Monrovia) fruit.

@Alanmercieca- My Sal Corleone(source Herman2) resembles last picture in original post and 1st picture of 2007 giants' post(1st link). The interior of yours looks nothing like mine. Yours has no cavity and is much darker in color. Mine also drips honey when very ripe and has a fairly open eye. BTW That fig looks delicious!

@premium guide- Look at alanmerieca's 1st link. I think you have a positive ID.

@ satellitehead:
So what the heck is a true BT?!

No wonder some people dislike this fig...

@ others:

I did my share 'distributing' the  Sal(C) fig.

Jason,

I looked at that link in Alan's post and those pics look pretty spot on (and curiously, completely different than the two pics in his post).

Also, your description of the fruit .... "The interior has a small cavity and is peachy possibly a little pink in color. The exterior was reddish- purplish with maybe a hint of green and little white freckles like on VDB. The eye rips open slightly on many and resembles a small star." ... seems to be on the money too. I'd say some get a strawberry pink, but they never quite get red inside. The fruit in my sliced pics were so ripe they were starting to lose their firmness.

My figs have a very sweet flavor and they attract a huge amount of flies if I don't keep up on the harvest.  My gf's middle eastern co-workers and everyone else raves about them. But of course they were getting them for free, and we all know everything tastes better when it's free :) .

Obviously, IDing this one is not an easy task as I see there are a variety of opinions here. I did look at some pics of a Dark Brooklyn, and it was very similar, but the tree bark appeared to be whiter ... my bark is more gray in color. And the person I got the figs from originally, said it was a BT.

I am curious, ... is it unique to be able to start harvesting in the first week of August? ... IIRC, that only happens if we have good Summer rains.

 

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My SC's were attracting yellow jackets last year because of the juicy open eyes. As fas as harvesting, I don't think it is uncommon. I think mine started a week later than yours but I had trees that were producing main crops in late July.

This is the question of the century. 

All I can say is that his fig is a perfect match to a local BT one block from my house.  It has all of the same characteristics of shape/size/leaf size/void/colors/white freckles/etc.  The fig near me is sweet but watery like many BT I have tried locally.  The one near me also has smaller fruit (as this one does) than my BT from Monrovia, which made me think it wasn't another BT.  I will go find the thread from it and link to it so you can see.

If the pictured fig didn't have a void, I would never say it was BT.  Sal's C (mine) doesn't have a void like this and the fruit is more round than the original poster's fig (again, mine doesn't so much).

First, here is my Brown Turkey ripening Breba in June:  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/first-brown-turkey-breba-of-the-year-4767918

Some notes before you judge based on my tree:  My BT sometimes has unusually large fruit and is still young so often the fruit are pear-shaped.  Not sure where Monrovia got their stock, but all of the Monrovia BT have large figs like this.  Notice the white freckles.  Also, please know that this fig is on the NORTH side of my house in FULL SHADE.  This affects the fruit shape, size and the color (they don't get very dark).

Here is the tree I found about 100m from my house:  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Letdown-...-another-BT-5398318

I didn't take a picture of actual ripe fruit so I would not use this as a comparison.  I just want to post it because I said I would post.

See also:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1272089239&postcount=16

You probably (maybe George also?) want to check this thread about BT varieties (note many of the figs pictured are Celeste variants):

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Will-the-real-Brown-Turkey-please-stand-up!-5498398

Need more proof it's Brown Turkey?  See:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Name-That-Fig-5495920 

Don't judge Brown Turkey on leaves, here's a variety of leaves on mine, and another reason you can't judge many varieties on the leaves:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=41210339&postcount=20

Here is an extremely ripe BT from my Monrovia tree.  Like, almost rotten ripe ;)

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=41371106&postcount=8

@Jason- Not trying to start a flaming war, but I looked at your pictures and they look nothing like premiumguide's fruit. If you take a look at alanmercieca's first link to 2007 giants' thread. You will see almost an exact match. The voids in the center of BT are usually a different texture than the pulp. Much bumpier and almost fuzzy looking inside. Sal C has a finer, more delicate texture.

Again not trying to start a fig war, especially with another Jason. These are just my observations and opinions. My source for Sal C was Herman2.

I have not tasted any other figs than mine, but I'm going to ask a friend of mine  how the taste of mine compares to others she's had. She's a big fig person, and she raves about mine. I'll see if I can get more details.

I would say mine are sweet with a definite fig flavor. I would not describe them as watery. But like I say, I will try to get another opinion on the taste because all I can compare them to is fig newtons :)

I have two trees and the one in full Sun does tend to be sweeter than my shaded one.

Satelitte,

I appreciate all that work. I looked at all the pics. Thank you so much.

You guys play nice. I don't want to start a fig war.

Scott


 

No big deal here.

Scott, it is your fig and you may call it whatever you like.

Remember that old/funny beer commercial?:

"You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you ..."

What's in a fig name? If it performs very well for you keep it, else just dump it.

The truth of the matter is that, because there are so many of them BTs out there,

I still do not know the real one, and most probably I never will...

George, I know what you mean :)

Last year I had thrown some cuttings up on ebay and labeled them brown turkey. That seemed to have caused some confusion so I wanted to be sure of the correct ID.

I did speak to my friend and she did say that the fig flavor is milder than others she's had, and sweeter and juicier (but not drippy). She used the words earthy and refreshing too. She also said that she couldn't be much help because she didn't know which other varieties that she had tried, but that mine are her favorite. When she lived out in California is when she tried several different varieties.

.

No fig war and no offense. I'm not upset, definitely not trying to squabble or argue and I don't feel like anyone else here is either.

Brown Turkey figs I know rarely looks that fuzzy inside when properly ripe. Chalk it up to bad selection of photos. Ive got pics of ones who arent fuzzy. I have seen that fuzzy-inside thing happen with BT, but it is not the norm, it only occurs in maybe 1 out of 20 fruits on my tree.

I tend to agree with George. There are so many different "Brown Turkey" strains out there (just like Celeste), who knows which is which and what is what? (more on that later)

My point is - just like with Celeste - there are dominant "never fails" qualities that scream "I am this specific variety". I say that as someone in an area where BT and Celeste make up 75% or more of the local trees, and there is a tree on every other block (thousands in Atlanta). With Celeste, that unique teardrop shape, small fruit size, often dusted lookin skin that tends to crack and wrinkle when ripe, elongated neck or long stem, all these the strongest characteristics of Celeste. When you see a Celeste, there is no doubt (for me, at least) that it is a Celeste variant.

If I am to trust that Monrovia has a "true" Brown Turkey, and what's been sold in Georgia as "Brown Turkey" the last century is actually "the" original Brown Turkey, then i will be the first to exclaim the original "true" Brown Turkey has many telltale characteristics that make it fairly easy to identify (just like Celeste has its unique characteristics that define its variety). I say this as someone who has driven around north GA and documented dozens (maybe hundreds) of similar trees in Atlanta.

The fruit pictured in the first post of this thread has the prominent white freckles over the purple skin (fading to green at top) which many BT here have, typical fruit shape and size, a big open eye that will crack a bit when ripe to form a "star" sometimes, that same decent sized interior void which is so common in BT, although some are different sizes and textures, same interor color (pinkish and sometimes tan when over-ripe), along with that general 5-lobe leaf that is predominate on most BT near me... It is all there.

If I saw this tree in my area, I'd have probably called it a BT (or BT variant). Of course, I would have never made the definitive call locally until I sampled the fruit and noticed it had that characteristic, piss-poor "sweet but watery" taste that BT figs always have. It is truly the worst, most boring tasting fig I have ever had and you know it well when you taste a few dozen. With that said....

If the fruit is sweet and watery with no richness whatsoever, there is no doubt to me that this is a variant of the original "Brown Turkey" or possibly "the" original Brown Turkey. Not EBT or California BT or one of the other fig which is supposedly a BT variety but doesn't necessarily look or taste like plain old "Brown Turkey".

I would just add one thing - ask any of the other guys here at F4F who live in Georgia and they'll probably confirm - when you ask most people in Georgia what kind of fig tree they have, many will say "it's a Brown Turkey" or "Turkey fig". When you ask why they think that, they will tell you, "well, the fruit is brown, must be a Brown Turkey!". Truth is, many people are ignorant to the fact there's more than two or three types of fig tend to think every fig is a "Turkey fig" or "Brown Turkey" because they have no idea that the variety most often sold as Brown Turkey isn't actually a "brown fig".

With this in mind, I must say that I (personally) doubt whether some varieties with "Brown Turkey" in the name are really a "Brown Turkey". I am skeptical that maybe California Brown Turkey, EBT, Improved BT and others probably got "Brown Turkey" attached to the name because someone saw they were sort of brown, reddish brown or brownish purple and figured, "must be a Brown Turkey!".
This is only a guess, and until genetic testing is widely done on every possible variety, we may never know just how "wrong" the current naming is. This is why I tend to go by characteristics rather than name. I tend to think Monrovia has a true Brown Turkey because - I kid you not - it tastes like crap, worse than any other fig, and this is a common comment about Brown Turkey.

And the fig confusion continues to expand out of this world.... ;)

Haha. True story.

A big thank you to everyone for all your time and help!

Scott

Jason,

I just thought I'd let you know, that I've had some purchases of my cuttings by people with huge fig collections. So I suspect that my fig is neither brown turkey or sals.

I've been calling it brown turkey because I'm uncomfortable with labeling it as anything else.


Scott

I named this one Tatnall Red, because that is the name of the street I found it on. It is a dead ringer for your fig but is underripe.

Ok. We'll try to Id in the summer. It is much easier when there is access to ripe fruit and mature leaves.

Thanks for that pic, Brent, but it's stretching the hell out of the board!

Sounds good, Jason.