Thought I'd start a new thread for this one. Hope you all like it. Sadly I won't be going back to Cali this year. Here's the link....

Great video little John, you really do look like a wild forager!  I like getting to see forum members in action, nice job.  Was the fig you were eating kadota?  Take me with you next time!

I'm really not sure what kind of fig it was. I've never eaten a kadota fig so I can't compare. The figs wern't the best but they were better than nothing. I canned them in syrup to take them back home to WI. I've been putting them in smoothies and adding them to apple sauce for a twist.

I enjoyed your video John. I hope you enjoyed the bag full of figs.

Looks like you had fun looking for goodies in those back alleys John. If you're ever in Naples FL, you can do the same thing by bike in the just-off-the-beach comunities. Alot of very similar small roads that go in back of houses.

Lots of Mongoes, Lychees, Avacados, Carambola, & citrus hanging over the fences. Just be careful, those home-owners associations sometimes carry A-K's :-) . Dress like a beach bum or carry a fishing rod & they'll hardly give you a second look.

Ha ha, good tips Bill! I'm not sure when I'll be in Naples but I'll keep that in mind. ;-)

That was great wildforager:)) Glad you got to make good use of those nice figs rather than the birds gettin them.

Thanks Kim, I'm really having fun making videos for youtube. I've put out 5 now. Maybe I should visit some fig friends like Michal in Canada. It would be good for more of us to show what we do with our figs.

Little John,

Great video, Looks like you had fun doing it.

We'll compare tattoos one day. LOL

Hey there Little John you made a wonderful video in my opinion thanks for sharing it .

Hey Martin, maybe I should come down to the Chicago area when the figs are ripe and video your place sometime? I'm having fun putting out the videos on youtube.

Little John thats fine, i dont have much too look at compared to most members but your welcome hope you dont mind dogs yapping the one i would have to keep in house he is not friendly.

I enjoyed your video, Little John--something to tide me over till the figs are ripe again.

Little John. I commented earlier but I neglected to actually compliment you on your video work. You did indeed do a good job. Can't be easy riding a bike, being the star, and camera man all at the same time!

You're welcome back to my place some day when I have some fig trees worth video-ing. You shouldn't have any trouble finding your way back to this neck of the woods.

What kind of video camera were you using? I've never even figured out how to download video myself yet. I've got an older Panasonic Mini-DV. Would be fun to post some stuff to youtube sometime.

I always wanted to do a spoof on Less Stroud (Survivorman).
Maybe you could do something like that.
You know;  "Here I am in the wilds of East LA. I'm at least a block from the nearest house. All I have is this ruck-sack, this pocket knife, and these fig trees to survive on.........."   It could work  ;) .

haha, sounds fun Bill. I'll let you be the star and I handle the camera work. As far as what camera I use, we picked up a sony handy cam with a 20 gig hard drive inside. No disc or tape. Just plug it in and upload to the computer. It took me a while to find the best video program to do the editing. For the oddball format that this camera puts out (.mod) I found a program called kdenlive. Its compatable with Linux, which I run as an os on my computer. Now the fun begins and the head scratching is over.

great video and thanks for sharing!

I enjoyed very much your video. Someone mentioned Naples, I enjoy Naples Fla very much I have cousins there who have beachside properties, very very gorgeous, Mediterranean homes. Lots of good fruits definitely, but always ask for permission if you can before taking them there :)) There was a wild pack of monkeys don't know what they are called that traveled all over naples and ate from one house to another, cousin hadn't seen them recently, she used to feed them on her wall. I hope see more video's of your explorations in future, time for us all make more figs videos. This year. Thanks LIttle John.

Hey Lil John, thanks for the video!  I really enjoyed it.  I need to video some local fig finds in my area.  However, in the south in order to find fig treasures you have to drive around.  cheers,

That was a very fun video to watch. I checked out all your other videos. Informative and made me want to go wild foraging too. Oh for a fresh fig right now.........and maybe some kelp and goumi on the side... Ha ;)
Eve

L J. Thanks for the camera info. I'm definately still at the head scratching phase.

Italiangirl74; Naples is a beautiful place - to visit. I got very tired of living there. In my opinion, the more people that move to FL, the more space us country folks have - just the way I prefer it. I miss the many fruits and the fresh-caught saltwater fish. That's about it.

That's just me though. I knew many people who just love FL. That's why they are still there & I'm not  ;) .

As for those mokeys you mentioned. Those are the squirrel monkeys. Cute little things. There was a big controversy there for awhile about whether to irradicate them or not. Apparently they can carry diseases that can be easily comunicated to humans. With many folks hand-feeding them in their back yards, there was some legitimate concern. Fortunate for the monkeys the public outcry was great enough to keep them all from being trapped or poisoned. 

I was in direct contact with one of the individuals who had been granted permission (by the FL Wildlife Commission) to sedate and relocate as many of the monkey colony as possible but he was intercepted and completely stopped by some animal rights folks.

So, just a little inside info on the Naples Squirrel Monkey colony. They are, apparently, there to stay :-) .

Now back to figs :-] . John?

Saxonfig, you are so correct! I am not a critter lover, Wilder animals scare me, I love my dogs, but as far as monkeys, stay far away from me please! :) They ate many many a fig in Naples, along with other fruits, I exclaimed many times to family ' Dont feed them, they will keep coming back and eat all the figs! They have been gone for a while in that particular part of town. That would be an interesting video while taping figs trees a family of monkeys walks or seems the case swings by, only in Naples! 

Wow, that would have made my video more exciting.... "I have to get picking these figs, looks like the monkeys are picking at them." haha, that would be funny. The birds are bad enough but to have to deal with monkeys too, I think the laughs would wear off pretty fast for us fig lovers!

LIttle John, Hah! Exactly my thoughts! Ciao

Hey Maggie. What kind of figs were your folks growing in Naples?

It's ironic that I was into growing fruit of all sorts when I lived there but never had the interest to try the figs. A couple of people actually mentioned growing figs to me too is the thing. Guess I just didn't know enough about them to peak my interest at the time :-/ .

Saxon,,,,,,   Dottato. and Abruzzese heirloom from our home. Ciao