Here is a pic of some VdB figs. never had one and cant wait to see what they taste like. have been told they are really good but nothing to what they taste like.

They are one of the best when properly ripened.

Ditto to what Jason said.

So what advice can you offer in that respect. It is one of my potted plants so I can move it in the greenhouse for more heat if that will help.

Well mine are kept outside so.........

forget about it. what i mean is... forgot about the ripe fig.. and when you totally forgotten about it, go look at the tree. that's when the figs are just amazing. VdB is one fig that i will keep forever. 

i feel like a kid before christmass waiting for some ripe figs here. i thing forgetting about them will be hard to do. some others that im hoping to try for the first time as well this year are, MvsB, sal's G, Albique patete. desert king is putting on figs but i have been told they will all drop so im not getting my hopes up on that one.

dave, here is the one VdB that i totally forgotten about last yr. best VdB so far :) 

Just leave it outside. If they aren't ripe by the time it gets cooler then throw it in the greenhouse for more time. I did that with several late figs last year and they were very good but i suspect if they ripened outside in the heat of summer they would have been great. The best figs are ripened naturally outside IMO.

Reading this thread I'm kicking myself for leaving on all the breba figs on my 3 year old container VdB.  As a result it doesn't look like I will get any main crop figs and the two brebas that I've had so far haven't been very impressive.  Next year I'll remove the brebas.

....and don't pick them early either. You'll only cheat yourself.

yeah.. don't pick them early.. just forget about 'em. 

Pete that looks wonderful. discribe the taste, what could it be comparable to. the only figs i have tried fresh are hardy chicago and pete's honey.

I happen to like vdb brebas. Not as good as main crop but still delicious. You can ripen two crops in a pot you just have to shuffle a bit in the spring. Both breba and main get bigger and better with age.

See this thread

spoonful of raspberry preserve... very sweet. total 'wow'. only thing was, that one was too small to really get the full satisfaction.

Oh my goodness, think I might have to see if I can't root a few more. It has grown a lot after I up potted it. Not as fast as the RdB. Would it survive in ground if I wrapped it up for winter. I don't know haw hardy it is. I have planted in my hedge what I have been told was cold hardy which is MvsB, Sal's G, hardy chicago, and RdB. I do have another RdB potted up just in case. But I have only the VdB potted .

Wow!! That looks great. I'm sooooo jealous. I going to locate another VdB.

My usual rule of thumb with figs is that the fig is ripe if it is picked when it is drooping down, no longer feels firm, skin is cracked (though this doesn't always happen) and no white latex oozes out when the fruit is picked.  From I am reading on this thread with VdB the taste improves if the fruit is kept on the tree even longer than this, is that correct?  Actually, the two brebas I picked this morning were much better than the first couple, probably because we haven't had rain for a couple days.  Like a lot of us here on the forum my problem is the longer I let ripe fruit hang the more likely that critters will get to it.

I can't wait till my VdB puts out some figs.