Fig!

First, let me state for the record that I have never eaten a fig, aside from in Fig Newtons.  I was so tempted to grow a fig tree because I know several folks who have figs and the plants are beautiful.  The leaves are so unique and interesting.  I resisted the temptation for as long as I could and then last fall, I broke down and ordered a Chicago Hardy fig from Stark Brothers.  I requested that they ship it in the spring, and when the little stick arrived in the mail, I popped it into a 5 gallon pot.  

Chicago Hardy figs are hardy here in Southwestern Pennsylvania (zone 6B), but a particularly hard winter may cause the tree to be killed back to the ground, requiring the tree to regrow from its root stock.  We originally planned to keep our fig in the pot and bring it inside every fall, until it got too big to bring indoors.  But halfway through this summer, we decided to put it in the ground.  We decided we would rather gamble with a small fig tree now, rather than waiting a few years and then trying to plant a massive tree that we had been coddling for years.  

Early this summer, not long after the tree sprouted leaves and some growth at the base, I noticed two tiny figs on the tree.  The one has been steadily getting larger.  The other day I noticed that it looked like this:

You can see that it had taken on a little color and it was no longer sticking straight out from the tree -- it had started to sag a little.  On Sunday, we picked it and cut it open.

It was very small, much smaller than I thought a ripe fig would be.  It looked kinda gross and wormy.  Our friends were over, so we shared with them.  None of the four of us had ever tasted a fresh fig.  When I popped my quarter in my mouth, it was sweet and delicious!  The four of us were pleasantly surprised with the taste.  I did wind up with a few small fig seeds in my teeth, just like the Fig Newtons, but the comparison ends there.  Suddenly, I am looking forward to future crops of figs.

There is the other small fig on the tree still.  I'm hoping that it will get larger and ripen before the first frost. The average first frost in Southwestern Pennsylvania is October 19, so our little fig will have about a month and a half to fatten up and ripen.

Fingers crossed.