We call a spade ... figs
The fig tree is wild and belongs to the family fikon, the sycamore Carrick, (Ficus carica), the specific name, country of origin rather in Caria in Asia Minor.
Feature tree trunk with gray and dull sheets, reminiscent of open palms, which produces resin instead of milk, which is slightly caustic and creates itching and irritation. Another feature of the fig is the fruit of the fig, which is actually the flower.
It is the first tree mentioned in the Bible where when Adam and Eve expelled from paradise, they used fig leaves to be shipped to their nakedness. In mythology and sinister origins. When the Titans were defeated by Zeus sunk in Tartarus, Gaia, the mother, xanaevgale a surface from this Sykea, turning him into a tree, the fig tree
Still no mention in Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus to recognize his father Laertes reminds him that gave him "forty Sykas. But the goddess Demeter gave the residents of Attica, where he had fled when mourning after the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Pluto.
At the time of Solon, prohibited the exportation of figs from Athens and complaining even offenders were called sycophants. In ancient Rome, according to tradition, the wolf and Romo grew up in Romulus under a fig tree. Finally, the Buddha also sat under a fig tree, known to stop for three days, reached the Great Enlightenment.
Remains of figs have been found in Neolithic settlements of 5000 BC and in Egypt have found baskets of figs in Egyptian tombs, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were fig trees.
In ancient Greece, the cultivation of the fig tree started from Crete, which probably came from Egypt and then in the 9th century in Greece. In Herodotus referred to as Sykea or Siki and with olives mentioned in the "Pythagorean meals.
In Byzantine times, figs, known as "ischades" guarding the entire winter in earthen pots, while the Romans considered them "holy" fruits and kept them in honey. In the early 16th century, expanded the cultivation and other Mediterranean countries and three centuries later, Spanish missionaries brought and planted fig trees in San Diego, California, where the cultivation and production of figs rival countries today, traditionally sykoparagogikes such as Greece, Turkey, Spain and Portugal.
There are many beliefs about the fig tree, and refers to gospel texts. as the tree that Jesus cursed to dry when it found neither a fruit to eat, while popular wisdom considers accursed, because it hung from Judas after his betrayal, finally even say that you should not sleep under the fig tree because it carries a heavy sleep.
Types of figs, white, black, purple, red, small, large, well known to those of Kimi Evia, Messinia Kalamata (tsapelosyka) of Pelion Pelion, royal t s
Figs are rich in vitamins (A, B, E), minerals calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, and contain large amounts of sugar by draining multiplied. It is easy to digest and help the smooth functioning of the intestine.
Or eaten raw like fruit and dessert, with their best season in late summer, but year-round as dried.
The fig has joined the culinary ingredient in cooking (pie, tart), confectionery (jams, sweets, cookies, molasses), but even the distillery as the checksum in Chios.