Nothing too surprising, but still a nice annual event.

One interesting comment made by Research Director (head big wig) John Preece made in reply to someone asking if a home orchard grower could order cuttings:

"If you go to our web site, the national policy is to give it out for research and education purposes.  And....we do not judge who the researcher is."  This was followed by considerable laughter.  I mention this because earlier this year several people were expressing concern that the NCGR had changed its policies and would no longer distribute material to such individuals.

Here is Howard discussing the figs we were given to taste.

 
 
 

Had a green salad with figs, fig and pistachio cheesecake, and this dessert which was my favorite:

 

Harvey,  I'll bet this was a popular event! Anything left at end of day?

Thanks Harvey. I would have felt like a big fig if I could have attended.

Those plates of cut figs are stunningly beautiful!

What was the desert?  It looks really great.

After everyone went through the line one time, there were still figs and grapes left.  I'd guess there were 50-75 people there today.  I went through the lines maybe 3 times.  They had a lot of grapes left and I grabbed a small bunch from the bowl to take home and Bernie (guy in charge of grapes and some other things) said that was fine and then he brought out a lot more grapes that were left in coolers and I took a large bunch of a grape I liked.  It's getting late for figs at Wolfskill so I don't think Howard had large quantities left over, especially since he and his wife had made several dishes with them.

Here is a cluster of grapes I brought home.  Sorry, but I'm not going to share the name until after I get my cuttings next spring. :)

 

Those Zidi figs look good. Thank you for posting.

Harvey,

    Thanks. Enjoy. Good luck.

Harvey, what is your favorite fig?  I am eyeing the panachee... looks so good!

Interesting that UCD 200-43 made the cut for sampling...

Grasa, my Panache are better than the ones we had yesterday, IMO, so it wasn't my favorite there.  I liked Zidi the best.  White Ischia was probably second.  I found the Pied xxxx xxx pretty interesting and liked it (tight eye, partially dried on the tree so pretty nice flavor).

200-43 was a very sweet, tasty fig in the orchard this season.

One of the mistakes I realized after the fig cutting purchase was that 200-43 should be a similar tree/fruit to 187-25 because of similar parentage.  Oh well...Try and get together some money for next year!