Hello all! My name is Jenny and I'm new here (also very new at growing figs). I have a one year old son and want to grow varieties that he and my future children will love.

I would love to hear about other member's experiences growing figs with/for their kids and what special fig tree(s) the kids look forward to every year. Thank you!

My girls loved the Sari Zybek we used to eat in Central Asia. It is very sweet yellow fig with a think skin, there are several similar varieties here in the US.

Welcome!  I think most kids will love any ripe fig.

Welcome Jenny. I too am an RN and am essentially growing all my fruits and veggies for my kid too. I built a shade/greenhouse with a sandbox in it!

Welcome Jenny.
  
[QUOTE] I think most kids will love any ripe fig.[/QUOTE]  I second.

Welcome Jenny.
you might want to start from something like this  

LOL!!!
sorry i could not stop my self...
i think you should start with any fig that is very ripe.
the most important thing to do is to take off the skin and if it has a thick white part remove most of that as well.
they will start eating it with the skin when they get older

No fruit from my fig plants yet here, but my five year old was helping me look after cuttings rooting in perlite yesterday, he found one buried that had some nice roots on it.  I saw that it was labeled with 'HC' by the donor, and asked my son if he knew what kind of fig it was(always testing the little guy)- right off he said, "Hardy Chicago"-we got a fig prodigy coming up here, folks!

I'm still trying to get my 3 y.o. to eat a fig. He'll put it in his mouth, but doesn't actually bite all the way into it. I'm sure he'll love them once I can convince him that it's OK to eat a fruit with skin still on it.

[QUOTE=zone5figger]No fruit from my fig plants yet here, but my five year old was helping me look after cuttings rooting in perlite yesterday, he found one buried that had some nice roots on it.  I saw that it was labeled with 'HC' by the donor, and asked my son if he knew what kind of fig it was(always testing the little guy)- right off he said, "Hardy Chicago"-we got a fig prodigy coming up here, folks![/QUOTE]

Ha!  That's great.  :)

My 3 & 5 year old will eat any fig.  They can tell if it isn't ripe enough.... which means, not sweet enough. 
I'll be putting a few more trees in ground next year.  I told them I am giving them a tree of their own so they can care for it and watch it grow and hopefully put out figs next year.  They're very excited, as am I.

Hi Jenny and welcome to the forum! Can you update your profile or tell us where you live? This forum has folks from all over the world. And it would best if we knew your location. Without knowing your location, I'd recommend a common fig like Hardy Chicago or Marseilles Black. Both are super hardy and produce excellent sweet tasting figs that are hard to beat. You can even grow them in half whiskey barrels. I have many in these barrels growing fine. Here's a tip I use with my little ones, tell them you have a club called, The Try It You Like It club, and everybody has to try one food at least once in order to be in the club. My little ones help me pick my figs and we eat them right off the tree. And, they love fresh figs!

My 1 year old had an LdA, she loved it. I wanted some for myself...didn't happen.

Celeste - small and sweet, perfect for kids.

I have 3 kids.  Two of them don't like them at all, but one is a true fig lover at heart.  My wife is also not a fig lover...she only just tasted on last week that she admitted was pretty good (...one that my daughter and I thought was amazing!!)  So, you never can tell.
Jim

My 8 year old daughter will eat any ripe fruit, and anything weird it seems.  I think the sweeter it is, the more she likes it.  Almost never turns one down, unless it's soured. 

My 6 year old son will not eat a rip fresh fig, but will eat dried ones. 

Just depends on their individual tastes.  I think that any kid that likes one fig will like them all, and if they don't like one, they won't like any. 

To encourage them to like them, I would make sure that the first one you give the kid is very very sweet.  Cut it in half and make sure it's a good one before you offer it to him/her.  Otherwise you risk spoiling their first impression with a mediocre fig. 

[QUOTE=GeneDaniels]My girls loved the Sari Zybek we used to eat in Central Asia. It is very sweet yellow fig with a think skin, there are several similar varieties here in the US.[/QUOTE]

Gene, where in Central Asia does Sari Zybek come from?

My two year old and 4 year old both don't like figs ... Yet. Go figure. They have to compete with the Everbearing strawberries which they like better. I'm sure they will come around.

I like the idea of peeling them. I'll have to try that.

@ ADelmato 90% of the people in greece do not eat the skin... not just the kids

I have two boys.  One of them likes figs that have a little more subtlety and aren't too "in your face" with sweetness.  He likes Conadria and Frank's Fig Unknown (probably a close relative of English Brown Turkey).  The other one loves any fig that is ripe.  :-)

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

P.S.  Welcome to the forum.

My daughter absolutely HATES figs!  And for that, I am profoundly grateful, as I have 27 other varieties of fruit trees in my yard and she CLEANS THEM OUT like some form of biblical plague. At least I get to enjoy the fruits of my (fig) labor, pun intended.

I bought my wife and child a copy of the story:  "The Little Red Hen".  They missed the point.

I put up a garden sign quoting Captain John Smith of Jamestown fame:  "He Who Shall Not Work, Shall Not Eat".  That sign is routinely ignored.

Its a good thing I love them both so very much....

Welcome Jenny! My boys are older now and at the ages of 27 and 22 could not care less about figs(sad to say). My baby girl is 14 and still loves to do things with her dad, including gardening and figging of course. Her favorite is Celest ,small and honey sweet ,she devoures them right off the tree. Best of luck with everything!

I find children new to figs will be shy to try them if you give them a whole fig since they don't look like anything else they eat.

But if I given them 1/2 of a ripe fig that I am eating then they would eat it and love it and keep eating 1/2 of mine as long as I keep eating them.  It is rather enjoyable showing them this way.

My kids and grandkids love any kind of figs, ripe and picked from the tree.

Jenny,
Welcome to THE forum where it all happens :)

Kids love honey figs, I say this from my experience with my 2 kids.
As they grow up, my girl at 5 and boy 3, my boy started to develop taste for acidic foods, he eats Sorel on daily bases from the garden and dark figs with acidic, berry-ish, tastes(when available) but my girl remains faithful to Honey Figs.
I wonder if it's a gender thang? ;P

[QUOTE=snaglpus]Hi Jenny and welcome to the forum! Can you update your profile or tell us where you live? This forum has folks from all over the world. And it would best if we knew your location.

I am from Fayetteville, AR, which is in zone 6B. Our summers are highly variable, sometimes very humid or very dry. Unpredictability seems to be the norm. I chose figs as my first fruit trees to grow for two reasons. Firstly, we have moved a lot and I didn't want to leave my beloved trees, so I needed a fruit tree that could grow well in pots. Secondly, I tried my first fresh figs a few years ago and realized they would definitely be worth growing myself. I knew I hadn't encountered that elusive, perfectly ripe fig so many people talk about. Even at mediocre though, they were so good!

I love all of the comments and stories of how you guys are involving your kids! I'll definitely be using some of your ideas! Thank you everyone for sharing and feel free to keep the stories coming! I hope my kids will happily pick the trees clean one day, as well :).

I currently have a Sumacki and Violette de Bordeaux. I have room for just one (maybe two) more trees this year, so I'll have to try to choose my next varieties wisely. Thank you all for the very warm welcome and I look forward to reading the rest of your comments!

Welcome Jenny!
My 4 kids ages 10 thru 2 all like figs.
Our favorites this year were:

Hardy Chicago-Purple fruity sweet with nice touch of acidity. Edible skin, dark red pulp. My first love in figs.
_
Monstrouse- Green thick inedible skin fruity- bright stark red pulp. Beautiful contrasting colors when you open the fruit. Had acidity and texture reminiscent of a plum when not fully ripe, when more fully ripe was sweet, still had some acidity and if you closed your eyes its flavor tasted like a sweeter plum. Not figgy. We really liked it and it gave us a very nice harvest for it being in my garden only just this year.

Banana- fruity has unique flavor like a piece of candy.

Alma- fruity and sweet very nice flavor. Amber ligt pink pulp. Edible skin

LSU Purple- sweet figgy flavor pleasant not terribly unique in flavor but no less appreciated when consumed. Frequent bearer.

Celese- Mild light flavor sweet figgy. Pretty purply pinky brown sweet edible skin.

My kids enter my garden expecting sweet treasures. This year the fig trees I purchased did not disappoint us.

Truly we were blessed to have tasted so many new to us varieties since we lost so many other trees in last year's rough winter.
I prayed and asked God to let us have figs to eat from the garden this year and He did not dissapoint us. I love Him because He and His figs are so good.

Hi, Jenny and welcome to the forum :) It is fun growing fig trees with kids and then try the fruits together :)  My youngest one usually tries to beat me to the ripe ones :) Two of my daughters love sweet yellow honey figs with tender skin. I would highly recomend Conadria and Italian Honey .

Gene, I am curious too where in Middle Asia you are from and what is the closest fig variety in USA that resembles Sari Zybek ?  I grew up in Middle Asia , Kyrgistan, among beautiful fruit orchards, green forests, mountains and  gorgeous Issik-Kul lake :)  So many wonderful memories from childhood are connected with gardens and nature and eating fresh fruits right off the trees. All my married life now here in USA I am trying to create the same thing I had, or at least a little portion of it, for my own kids so that they can have those wonderful memories and can experience what it means to climb a tree and enjoy fresh fruits :) We grow so many different edilbles in our garden here in hot AZ desert... it is so much different from Middle Asia :) 
Two of my daughters love sweet yellow honey figs with tender skin. I see Sari Zybek fig trees on sale sometimes on Ebay, but since I have not heard much about it, I never got brave enough to try growing it here. Would be great to know what  fig it resembles and if it likes hot dry climate like ours :)

My kids were eating figs and all sorts of fresh fruit when they were less than a year old. They prefer fruit over any candy or chocolate. As far as what varieties, it really doesn't matter much, but they're now 6 years old, and they know  exactly which one have the best flavor. They wait to let it fully ripen and they pick them off. 
As far as what varieties, they love Celeste, Hardy chicago, Dark portuguese, Brooklyn white.