Picked these a few days ago

those look delicious!! I sent you an email Ed, your pm mail box was full... I feel like such an addict, lmao!!

Which one has the toughest skin?

Suzi

Nice black and white combo!  

Malta black had a thicker skin but is still a great fig.  It is in an unenviable position to have to go one on one with latarolla.  Latarolla wins easily on taste and has a nice seed crunch.

Hey Ed, This is a surprise to hear. I would have thought Malta Black would win taste test 9 out of 10. You really like Latarolla. They both sure look like 10. Thanks for pictures.


luke

Ed, Latarolla looks really tastey, would you say it is your best White fig?

 Pete

No question Pete.  Might be better than all my black ones too.

Malta Black is magnificent tasting when climate colaborates.
This year climate was not ideal,and the fruits on My Malta Black,Stella,Atreano,Ronde De Bordeaux,Maltese Falcon,Kathleen Blk,Gino's,Improved Celeste,Marseilles vs Blk,all tasted very good,but one notch under what they were in 2010,last year with decent Summer.
Even 2011 ,Fall Season,(October),produced better tasting fruits across the Board compared to August 2012!
Of course Summer is not over and ,Malta black and others,have a good chance to excel again,in September and October 2012.

Wow thanks for the info Ed!  

I'm glad Malta Black is not as good as Latarolla, that's one I won't be looking for. I am also very impressed with my Latarolla's taste and size, it is a good one for sure. 

Malta black is one of my favorite figs, and this is on one given day.  Remember fig taste is very subjective.  So far this year malta black has been tastier than rdb, marseilles vs, sals and other top notch figs.

That is interesting Ed, I would think those others would be pretty consistently good. I suppose there are variables that can affect taste that we still don't fully understand 

Barry, we DO understand. Everything affects taste. We just enjoy being in denial.

Black Madeira and Violette de Bordeaux are not that awesome, frankly. Sounds like heresy, but when they are grown at USDA/UC Davis and caprified, they are not as good as when they are not. Now, it might still be soil or weather of some other factor at their location, but from experience, they do better in my yard that theirs, and caprification seems to be the most obvious difference.

Well we don't understand enough to make them all taste at their peak, but yes we do understand climate, water, ph, feeding, temps, soil etc. 

In my humble opinion i think Ed hit it right when he stated
Taste is very subjective

i have gotten rid of some plants as recently as this morning and if grown elsewhere i bet i still would not like them and they had all the sun and heat needed for them this season.

Some of these were highly rated just not on my palate.

In My opinion,and experience that is why it is a must to have top notch figs that get ripe in different periods of Summer,in such a way that if early Summer is bad for ripening figs,then the Middle Summer might be dry and if not then the Fall,ripening like Madeira Black,Ital 258,Preto ,might get a long warm season,in October and November and then they might ripe when all the early and middle season,had a bad climate with lots of rain that spoiled them.
This kind of scenarios,apply specifically to the eastern and south side of US,where ,climate is very variable ,with abundant rains in August and September,as to,escape at least some cultivars,from the spoiling and souring caused by 3 to 10 inches of rain falling in a short period of 2 to 3 days.
Such rains will make any cultivar have spoiled and soured fruits long after such rains because the soil get filled with water,and continue to pump water in the maturing fruits for at least a week after rain,and in doing so ,watery fruits are the result.