Here are some pictures of my ripening celeste breba. It's drooping, soft and the skin is showing evidence of cracking and I'm hiding it from the  birds.









This is a picture of one of two LSU gold brebas on my 4' tall potted tree that I bought this late winter. It's starting to turn yellow from dark green. The other can be seen in the background.



These are two LSU Golds on a 16" tall tree I bought last year when it was 6" tall. I think these a breba also. They are golf ball size.

Gene, I guess I beat you to it (in a way).
One of the local produce store had two sizes of boxes with 6 and 12 imported figs (looked like Mission). The price was steep but I could not resist to pseudo-start the season. They normally come at the beginning of June but came early this year.

What did they taste like. I saw some here late last summer but passed on them. Too many of them were not soft.
"gene"

Gene, they tasted good and were sweet and just the right softness and natural look and no coating like the ones from South America (Argentine?) have.

Thats good to know. If I'm not being too curious, what kind of price were they. The ones I saw were 6.99 for about a dozen. I thought it was a little steep for what seem like some unripe figs. If they had looked ripe I might have taken a chance.
"gene"

Gene,

I want you to enjoy every last bit of that one bite you're going to have. LOL
You earned it!

I admire the healthiness of your trees. They look almost flawless.
Hard work paying off.

Gene
It was $4.49 for the package with 6 (in Canadian dollars).
And a small Egyptian guava for $2.00.

Rafed, I owe a lot of it to you or should I blame you. Ha. Of course I'll only get half, you know the 50/50 marriage thing.

Next time I see some Missions I dig deep and give them a try. Thanks for all the info.
"gene"

They look awesome!!  One of these days hopefully will have some like yours! 

Last summer I bought some mission figs from Trader Joe's and they were actually good!  They also had some green figs (no label) which were good too.

Gene,

My better half doesn't care for them. Which is very fine with me, I understand. I cannot make her eat the figs if she doesn't want to.

HeHeHe

Very nice Gene, looks like you will be eating figs way ahead of most of us. Licking my chops at that pic and waiting patiently for my first one of season.

Gene, that fig looks delicious. I hope it tastes as good for you as it looks. My wife doesn't eat figs either(YEAH!), so I don't have to share. I've seen a couple brebas on my Celeste trees before, but they never persist. Congrats!  Tim

My friends the fig was fantastic, or at least my half was. I was up-potting some cuttings that were in cups when the Linda showed up. She watch me for a while then noticed the bag covering the fig an asked what was that. So we walked over to check it out. I unwrapped it and showed her the fig. It was starting to ooze so I knew I had to pick it. I just touched it and it fell in my hand. Without thinking of pictures, I split it in half and we both inhaled our piece. I savored it as long as possible, mashing it well with my tongue against my palette to get the full taste. Then I chew it a little to get the crunch of the seeds and finally I let it slip oh slow slowly down the hatch. The I ran my tongue all around my mouth looking for one more little bit of taste that might be lingering. Ah, it was delicious, perhaps not quite as figgy as main season figs but very good.  Too bad it was only one, what a tease.

I was outside a little latter in the evening and I notice my LSU Gold fig pictured above was missing. I looked down and found it in the pot. I cut it in half to find out that it wasn't fully ripe. The center was well on its way to ripening but the eye end was still dry. I took a taste but it was not very good. It had a little fig flavor but no sweetness. Looking at it closely it saw, as you can see in the photo a small brown area right where the fig meet the branch. It encircles the stem and I wonder if that was the problem. The other one on the same tree doesn't have that brown ring.

Now I only have to wait for the season to begin. It will be much harder now that I've had a taste.
"gene"

That description is making me drool and jones for that first taste. The Conadria, VDB and LSU Gold have some size showing but nothing close to being ripe in next few weeks (all are main crop) more like a month away would be my guess.

Gene good for you!
The lady you mention Linda what did she think of the fig ?

Gene im sure glad the birds here dont bother my figs , they go to the fountain for there baths right next to my larger ones. The bird houses on the shed alo close by my figs are coming down after there babies get on there own as there messy and sometimes the eggs or the babies fall to the ground. I suppose we have dumb birds here as all these seasons i been growing never had one mess with my figs and hope it stays that way.
Martin

Martin, she had the same thoughts I had. It was very good but too bad it was only one or should I say, a half of one.

Evidently you don't have mocking birds at your house. Them no goods can spot an almost ripe fig from a mile away. Actually they are very territorial, and get to know each tree, bush, shrub and worm bed etc. etc. by heart. They will eat a fig on the day before you're going to eat it. How they know, I don't know, but it always seems to be that way. The only true remedy is to plant plenty of tress so that they can't eat all of them. Cardinals are also real bad at pecking at them, but they usually only take a bite or two and then find another one to mark.
"gene"

Gene,
i dont know what a mockingbird looks like actually , the cardinals we have but not too many, we have a bunch of robbins , sparrows and the blackbirds. If birds were a problem eating my figs by me my only recourse would be to build a something like a chicken coupe to house the fig trees it would have a door and chicken wire for sides and top and be a long one but not to wide more like a long caged dog run. I would not want to fuss with netting on my trees.
Luckily i dont have a problem other than the occasional wasp.I just destroyed a nest under the shed roof line yesterday before sundown.

Hey Gene, we've got plenty of Mockingbirds here(state bird). They are ruthless on the figs along with the blackbirds. I never have seen a Cardinal on my trees. Thank goodness for bird netting( i use it reluctantly-just not easy to work with). If the wind happens to make a small space to open at the base, the mockingbirds always find it and sometimes as many as three will find their way under the netting when I'm not looking. At least it allows me to get most of them(figs). I actually like using squares of newspaper around figs fastened with a clothespin on the more prized varieties. Those blackbirds are smart though---they can pull that paper loose and eat the fig anyway. Later