Hi Forum. I have been a member of the forum for about 10 months, but I have yet to introduce my self officially. My name's Dan and I am from and currently live in Northern San Diego County.

Short Fig Story: My family is of Italian descent, so figs have been a huge part of my diet. One confession though: other than a brown turkey fig and not including dried figs, I have never had a fresh purple, violet, black, or dark fig. It's always been green figs: more specifically, a large, green skinned, red/pink/amber fleshed, intermediate variety (parthenocarpic breba, caducous main crop) that my grandparents "smuggled" over from Italy in the 70s. My grandma tells me that the variety is known as "Filacciano" in Italy.

I have learned a lot in the past few months by this forum's members, especially regarding fig pollination, fig reproduction, and propagation techniques. I thank you all for your input, documentation, photos, and observations you've shared, and especially Jon from Encanto Farms for his work. I hope to add what I can to the forum from my own observations. I see wild fig trees growing all over the place in SoCal, so I'll definitely be sharing pictures with you all.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone.

Great to have you, Dan.  Merry Christmas to you as well.

Welcome!
Can you tell us more about the flavor of the family fig?

Welcome Don. 

Do you know where in Italy this heirloom originated?

I assume from your history that you have the fig wasp in your area and get the second fig crop? 

How do the brebas compare with the (pollinated) main crop?

Hi Dan welcome and benvenuto. Filacciano is a name I have seen before on the forum, is it the same one?


Your fig sounds similar to Desert King.

Welcome

Welcome Dan and thanks for that nice introduction!

Hi Dan
You are surrounded by fig fanciers of all types, and in many cases here, lovers of Italian figs
Welcome aboard,
Coop

Welcome, Dan.
Time to acquire some dark figs:)

Welcome Dan and a happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to you. And tell us more about that fig.

Welcome Dan

Welcome Dan and thanks for sharing about your fig.

Welcome to the forum Dan, thanks for sharing.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the friendly responses! Thank you all! 

Greg, I akin the flavor of the brebas to be a sweet honey with light stwawberry. The best way I can describe the main crops flavor is sweet raspberry with some acid. I suspect the difference in taste between the crops has to do with the main crop being pollinated. (Again, the main crop needs to be pollinated to produce edible fruits.)

Ed, The family fig comes from Ciociaria, an old region in the Apennines between Rome and Naples. This doesn't necessarily mean that it originated there. It could have been brought in from another part of Italy and possibly even another part of Europe hundreds of years ago. I don't know for sure. But I believe the trees from which my grandparents got the original cuttings are still alive and fruitful. And yes, I do live in an area with the wasp. And as far as the breba/main crop comparison, I'll refer you to the response I gave to Greg.

Ciao Rafael, I just did a quick "Filacciano" word search...and wow, I recognize the fruit and leaf patterns. They are very similar if not identical to what I see on my trees. And yes, it could very well be DK! 

Rui, It's already on my to-do list. I know there is a little rivalry between dark and light fig eaters. I gotta say I'm on the light side due to inexperience with dark figs, but I'd love to hear the dark side's "argument" :) 

Hershell, It's about as hardy as a brown turkey fig. The brebas are pretty huge. My grandparents brought it to Los Angeles in 1973 in the form of 1 cutting in the carry-on lol. Now we have about 10 full sized trees. I'll try to find some pictures of the Filacciano fig. 

Welcome aboard the wild fig ride.... 

Brebas

Pollinated main crop

sorry the pictures are kinda huge, I have to work on my file re-sizing skills 

nice looking fig there Don! and welcome to the forum!
Tyler

Welcome to the forum Don... Good looking figs...

Welcome Dan, that sure is a good looking Fig! Interesting history about your Family :)

Don,

Welcome to the forum
Your pictures are great as well as your figs ! No need for re-sizing IMO
You seem to have all the ingredients to grow fantastic figs

Francisco
Portugal

Don - welcome!  A few of us on the forum are growing a San Pedro fig called Filacciano Bianco which is supposed to be derived from the Lazio region of Italy.  So it sounds like it comes from roughly the same part of Italy as your family heirloom fig and may very well be the same.   I'm pretty certain it is not the same as Desert King, another green San Pedro fig.  mgginva is growing both so he could confirm this.  You are lucky you have the wasp.  Here we only get the breba crop.  According to Michael a few main crop ripen but the vast majority do not.  Mine is all wrapped up for winter protection so that those brebas form next Spring!

Welcome Don .
Here are some pictures of Filacciano Bianco from a plant shared with me by a generous f4f member.

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Tasted very good to me.
Can't find the leaf pictures I took.

Welcome Dan
Great story!  I myself strive for balance rather than the light or the dark side.  I believe in taking the best from both worlds.  Your figs look terrific.