These pictures are from my phone, so the quality isn't great. The figs are Brown Turkey MD. They might be the only figs that ripen for me this season, so I don't want to pick them too early. What do you guys think? Are they ready to pick?

No not yet, but watch it carefully as that eye looks like it will crack open if it does it could sour it.

Careful, careful. First time I had the birds nailed 2 of my precious Marseillies VS and the Vicenzo. They were dark figs thus easier for them to pick the time to zoom in. Need nets for the next season.

See the "Growing Tips" at Figs 4 Fun, and cover them with newspaper as shown there. That should solve the bird problem. http://figs4fun.com/basics_Issues.html

They would be much darker skinned, here - almost black or very, very dark purple, and quite droopy and soft, before ripe.

 The Brown Turkey we have gets very dark purple, soft to the touch and skin cracks a little, when ripe. It is funny to me to see someone having a B.T. with figs right now. Our tree has long ago stop putting on figs, even little green ones. It is finished about the first week of August. This is a older tree about ten foot tall.

J. A.

The problem is that it isn't a Brown Turkey. I have always said I never met a BT that was worth eating.  It was labeled as a BT, and sent to me by someone who loved BT, and couldn't understand why I didn't. Now that I know it isn't a BT, but maybe Hardy Chicago, or something similar, or maybe even MarseillesVS-like, I understand why it got rave reviews. If I had tasted this fig and thought it was BT, I would have loved BT as well. Just another bump in the fig-ID road.

A bit belated and once again camera phone quality, but here are pictures of one of the figs. I picked this one October 1.

This was my first year growing figs. Brown Turkey MD was the only variety to ripen for me. Whatever its true identity, Brown Turkey MD is a nice tree. It grows fast, it seems to be fairly tolerant to fig mosaic virus, and it produces some very tasty fruit.

Matt,
your good on being patient!
Good for you to have a taste and best luck to you next season.