A Fig’s Tale

“What fruit has the eye of a widow and the cloak of a beggar?” asks an old Spanish riddle. Answer: a really ripe fig, revealing its honeyed lusciousness by a teardrop of syrup at the bottom and a tattered skin.

For millenniums, voluptuous figs, fresh and dried, have inspired aficionados to mania. So much of the story of figs seems mythic: the miracle of caprification, in which a tiny, frustrated wasp plays Cupid to figs; the breakthrough a century ago that harnessed this process for California farmers; the saga of the Los Angeles promoter who founded a Fresno fig empire with 660,000 blasts of dynamite.

Today, the California fresh fig is enjoying a renaissance. Paradoxically, that is attributable, at least in part, to ruinously low prices for the dried ones. Fig lovers can look forward to increasing shipments of the best fresh varieties arriving at markets and farm stands this week.

Figs were introduced to California by Franciscan missionaries, starting with the founding of Mission San Diego in 1769. The dark-skinned, pink-fleshed Mission fig was the only kind grown here until the 1850s, when settlers brought other varieties from the East Coast and Europe.

After statehood, a modest fig industry developed in the Sacramento Valley, focused on dried figs. By the 1880s, growers recognized that the Fresno area--the hottest, driest part of the Central Valley--is ideally adapted to the fig and expanded their plantings there, mostly of the green-skinned Adriatic variety.

Only one thing was lacking: the Smyrna fig, the “true fig of commerce,” which has a unique nutty flavor and brought the highest prices. In 1880, G.P. Rixford of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin imported 14,000 cuttings of this variety from Turkey, which he distributed to subscribers. The trees flourished, but, to everyone’s dismay, the figs dropped, unripe, at walnut size.

After several more fruitless importations, many Californians concluded that they’d been hoodwinked by the Turks.

The problem was that, although most figs (called common figs) bear fruit to maturity on their own, Smyrna figs must be pollinated by Blastophaga psenes, the fig wasp. This gnat-sized insect lives only in dry, inedible wild figs, called caprifigs.

Since ancient times, Mediterranean growers have assisted this pollination process, called caprification, by hanging branches of caprifigs in Smyrna fig orchards as the female wasps emerge from the caprifigs in the spring, coated with pollen. Searching for new caprifigs in which to lay their eggs, they enter Smyrnas through the eyes at the bottom, and dust the tiny flowers inside with their pollen. The wasps die without laying their eggs, since the Smyrna fig flowers are too long for their ovipositors, but the figs develop.

Although many American fruit experts considered caprification to be a peasant superstition, growers repeatedly imported caprifigs; each time, something went wrong, and the wasps didn’t take hold. Finally, George Roeding of Fresno succeeded in establishing a colony, and in August 1899 his orchard bore large, blond, plump Smyrna figs. After a contest, Roeding re-christened the variety Calimyrna, for California Smyrna.

California’s big fig boom began in 1910, when a Los Angeles real estate developer named J.C. Forkner leased a swath of hog wallow badlands northwest of Fresno. To this point, the area had served only as pasture, because an adobe-like layer of hardpan lay a few feet under the surface and the pockmarked terrain made irrigation impossible.

But Forkner had a vision. He hired dozens of tractors, still novel in those years, to level the ground, blasted 660,000 holes through the hardpan so that trees could take root and planted figs on 12,000 acres. Next he blizzarded the nation with advertisements and brochures promising, “Own your own Fig Garden, You’ll be rich! Five acres produce $4,000 annual income.” Chasing this lure of profits in paradise, hundreds of aspiring farmers, many from the East, bought into Forkner’s Fig Gardens.

A longtime Fresno fig grower, Harry Bud Buck, 80, remembers Forkner well, for his father supervised the western half of his plantings from 1918 to 1926 and later was his partner. “Mr. Forkner was quite a flamboyant character,” he says. “He loved to regale people with stories about how good figs were, and why they should grow them. Others detested him thoroughly, but I liked him.”

Most of the growers, then as now, were of Italian origin, with the old country’s love and knowledge of figs. Although the vast majority of the harvest went to drying, in the 1920s a considerable market developed for canned Kadotas, with thick greenish-yellow skins. Shippers also started sending refrigerated carloads of fresh figs to the East.

California fig cultivation peaked at 42,500 acres in 1927. Forkner lost his land in the Depression, as did most of the Fig Garden smallholders. He later recouped his holdings and died a wealthy man in 1969. After a boom during World War II the fig industry settled into a long, slow decline, squeezed by increasing labor costs and cheaper imports.

Business recovered somewhat and stabilized in the 1970s and ‘80s, but as Fresno sprawled northward, development gobbled up much of the old Fig Gardens. Most growers moved 25 miles north to cheaper land in the Madera-Chowchilla area. Today, only about 1,500 acres of figs--less than a tenth of the state’s 16,500 acres--remain in the former “Fig Capital of America.”

In the Fig Gardens, many owners have turned off the water in their groves, waiting for the inevitable houses and office buildings.

Along California Highway 99, orchards lie abandoned, strewn with discarded sofas and television sets, the weeds shoulder-high. Heedless that the flanks are turned, the venerable, gnarled trees still bear generous crops, but only squirrels and birds appreciate the soft, sugary fruit.

Aggravating problems for fig growers, Nabisco, the dominant buyer of dried figs, decided five years ago to pad out its Fig Newtons line with products made from other fruit. This cannibalized sales of the traditional cookies, and fig paste prices collapsed to $300 a ton from $1,000 a ton. Growers had to adapt or face ruin.

Some decided to emphasize sales of fresh figs, which have grown by a third to a half in the last five years. It’s a small, high-end market, less than 5% of the fig crop by weight but lucrative for those who master the tricky logistics of harvesting and shipping the delicate, perishable fruits.

The season begins in late May or June with the first harvest of Mission figs in the Central Valley. Many fig varieties bear two crops annually. The first crop, known by the Spanish term breba, is borne on the previous year’s wood, while the second, or main, harvest emerges from the new growth. Juicy breba Mission figs, twice as large as the later crop, go exclusively to the fresh market.

A month later, the harvest shifts to Mecca, in the torrid Coachella Valley. Mike and Alan Weeks fill the gap between the first and second crops of the Central Valley with their Brown Turkey figs, large and mild-flavored. A visit to the 80-acre planting is no picnic: An almost biblical plague of maddening black flies, spawned in the nearby Salton Sea, buzzes incessantly. Even at 6 p.m., a sweet, heavy odor, steaming from the large palmate leaves of the fig trees, permeates the 115-degree air.

“This is nothing,” says Alan Weeks. “A few days ago it was 123 degrees. No way do I go out in the middle of the day.”

The Central Valley’s main crop begins in late July and early August. On a sultry morning, Maury DeBenedetto Sr., whose family has farmed in Fresno since 1934, arrives at dawn to direct the harvest of Kadotas at a Fig Garden orchard.

Despite the heat, the pickers wear long sleeves to shield their arms from the short bristly hairs on the fig leaves as they reach deep into the trees for ripe fruit. They also wear surgical gloves to protect their hands from the milky sap that oozes from the stalks as they clip off the figs. It contains ficin, a protein-digesting enzyme that irritates skin.

“Years ago,” says DeBenedetto, “young Italian men in Fresno used to tattoo the names of their girlfriends on their arms with fig sap.”

He takes a golden-green Kadota from a picker’s bucket and peels off the thick skin, revealing strawberry-colored pulp. Normally Kadotas, which don’t need to be caprified, have lighter amber pulp, but this one has been pollinated by an errant wasp from a nearby Calimyrna orchard, giving it a darker hue and grainier texture.

In the middle of the orchard, shaded by the canvas roof of a field wagon, women sort and pack the figs. In hours, the cartons will be on jets to New York and Toronto, where large communities of people of Greek and Italian origin pay top dollar for the best figs.

Though the fresh fig market is growing, the vast majority of California’s fig harvest is dried. Picking of dried figs starts in August and runs through September.

For several decades, most growers have harvested dried figs mechanically, but at his vast ranch northeast of Madera, Paul Mesple still sets out fresh-picked Kadotas on trays to dry and turn white in the sun. Virtually all of these figs are exported to eastern Asia, where soups of boiled dried figs are a traditional tonic for restoring strength.

A few miles away, near Chowchilla, Kevin Herman, who farms 3,000 acres of figs, oversees the various stages of the mechanized harvest. First, men wielding hefty wooden mallets knock partly dried Missions off the trees onto the smooth orchard floor. Later, machines blow and sweep the figs into rows between the trees.

At the nearby Bump City ranch, Herman follows a tractor that sucks up the rows of fully dried Adriatic figs and deposits them in a big wooden bin, along with plenty of leaves and other debris. “It’s a dusty job, especially for the poor guy on the back of the tractor,” he says.

Fresh Calimyrnas are merely scrumptiously sweet, and drying concentrates the flavor to honeyed perfection. However, dried Calimyrnas are as difficult to farm as they’re delicious to eat. As Herman observes, “Cals will turn a young man old real quick.”

The chief problem is that the same fig wasps that pollinate the seeds, giving Calimyrnas their distinctive nutty crunch, also introduce fungi and smuts that spoil a high percentage of the crop. “Naturals,” large perfect dried figs, are rare.

A researcher at the University of California Kearney station, Jim Doyle, has spent nine years trying to breed the Holy Grail of fig growers: a new variety with the flavor of Calimyrna that doesn’t require caprification. Judging from a recent tasting of his most promising selections, he’s tantalizingly close, but complete success might be out of reach: Fertilized seeds seem essential to the Calimyrna’s flavor.

The half-dozen leading varieties of figs are well suited to commercial cultivation, but connoisseurs and collectors around the state claim that some of the more unusual kinds offer far superior flavor.

“People rarely get to taste the best varieties of figs,” claims Howard Garrison, field manager of the National Clonal Germplasm Repository collection at Winters.

Of the 140 varieties of figs under his care, his favorite is the outlandish Panachee, a green and yellow striped fig with a touch of acidity to balance its sweetness. But the Violette de Bordeaux, a dusky beauty with red pulp, astounds the palate with layer on layer of complex, interesting flavors and a subtle, lingering aftertaste.

Though the San Joaquin Valley is fig central, the Southland has seen its share of fig farms and follies. A land scheme similar to Forkner’s led to the planting of 5,680 acres of figs in the San Jacinto Basin of Riverside County in the 1920s. Because of low prices and water problems, just three acres remained by 1938.

Only vestiges survive of the fig gardens once common in the San Fernando Valley, but three commercial farmers with 10 acres or more still thrive in North San Diego County. They sell their crops, mostly Brown Turkeys and Kadotas, to Los Angeles wholesalers and prefer to keep a low profile.

“Please don’t tell anyone about me,” begs one grower in Escondido. “People call me up and talk for hours about figs or sneak into the orchard in the middle of the night to eat their fill.”

At the Fig Tree Ranch in Malibu, however, fig fanatics are welcome to visit. A quarter-mile from the ocean, the Cunningham family grows 150 trees bearing 23 varieties of figs, most of which can usually be tasted only in private collections. There’s Celeste, the classic fig of the Southeast, and the ranch’s own Coconut Chiquita, with a coconut aftertaste that’s “so good it should be illegal,” says Vikkie Vicars, the farm hostess.

“One woman who came to pick ate so much, I told her, ‘Next time, I’ll weigh you before and after,’ ” says Vicars with a smile. “People are nuts when it comes to figs.”

Arugula Salad With Port Roasted Figs and Ricotta Salata Cheese

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 45 minutes

This recipe is from Tim Woods of Echo Restaurant in Fresno, California’s traditional fig-growing capital. Summer arugula tends to be spicier, so you may need to temper the salad’s spiciness with a little more salt.

4 figs

2 to 3 tablespoons Port

1 clove garlic, minced

1 anchovy, rinsed and minced

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt, pepper

6 cups arugula

2 ounces ricotta salata cheese

* Trim stems from figs. Cut figs in half and drizzle with Port. Place on cookie sheet and roast at 350 degrees until figs are tender, about 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

* Soak garlic and anchovy in vinegar 30 minutes. Add olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

* Toss arugula with vinaigrette, and garnish with ricotta salata and figs.

4 servings. Each serving: 318 calories; 132 mg sodium; 8 mg cholesterol; 29 grams fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.61 gram fiber.

Fig Ice Cream

Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Jan Hartman and her husband Herb grow organic Brown Turkey figs in Fallbrook. This is her recipe.

5 cups chopped figs

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs, separated

1 cup milk

1 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* Place figs in bowl and cover with lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups sugar.

* Beat egg whites with salt until stiff peaks form. Add 1/2 cup sugar and continue beating until like meringue, 2 to 3 minutes.

* Beat egg yolks in large bowl. Add 1/2 cup sugar and beat until lemon yellow in color, 3 to 4 minutes. Add milk, cream and fruit mixture to yolks. Fold in whites and vanilla. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.

About 6 cups. Each 1/2-cup serving: 285 calories; 34 mg sodium; 82 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 50 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.42 gram fiber.

Note: Although many recipes call for uncooked eggs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found them to be a potential carrier of food-borne illness and recommends avoiding raw eggs.

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Fig Varieties

* Adriatic. (White Adriatic) Skin very thin, green to yellowish green; pulp strawberry. Imported to California in 1850s, most widely grown variety 1885-1945. Has excellent flavor when fresh but rarely sold fresh today (too delicate); mostly sold for fig paste. A disappearing variety because of low prices; being replaced by two other Adriatic varieties, Conadria and Tena. The various Adriatic types make up 34% of dried crop.

* Brown Turkey. (San Piero). Large; skin purplish-brown with greenish shades on neck; pulp amber to light strawberry; flavor bland. Introduced 1850s, most important fig variety grown in Southern California (different from Eastern Brown Turkey, which is grown in Eastern U.S. and Europe). Fresh market only (5% of fresh crop).

* Calimyrna (in Turkey, called Sari Lop or Lop Incir). Large; skin light yellow-green to golden yellow; pulp amber to light strawberry; fresh flavor good, very sweet; the standard of excellence for whole dried figs. Best-known of Smyrna figs, which require caprification to bear fruit. Grown in Meander (Menderes) Valley of Turkey for centuries; introduced to California 1880, first successful crop 1899. 50% of fresh fig crop, 38% of dried.

* Caprifig. Skin green or purple; interior white or purplish; pulp rough and dry. The name, which means “goat fig,” bespeaks its inedibility. Hosts the fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes, which pollinates Calimyrnas.

* Conadria. Skin light yellowish-green; pulp light lavender; flavor very good when fresh. Hybrid of Adriatic and a caprifig, bred by Ira Condit, fig expert known as “High Priest of the Fig”; introduced 1955. Resembles Adriatic but has lighter color, sweeter. Mostly dried and used for fig paste.

* Kadota. (Dottato). Skin thick, rubbery, green to golden yellow; pulp amber, sweet but a bit bland. Of ancient Roman origin, introduced to California before 1870; gained popularity in 1910s and ‘20s as chief canning variety; also tray-dried for Asian markets. Cultivation declining: 10% of fresh crop, 4% of dried.

* King. (Desert King, White King). Large; skin thin, green; pulp strawberry; breba quality very good, second crop rare. Discovered 1930 near Madera. Of San Pedro type, which bears a first crop without caprification but requires it for the second in most areas. Matures well in coastal climates; home garden and local markets only.

* Mission (Black Mission). Teardrop shape; skin violet-black; pulp light strawberry; texture slightly coarse; flavor good fresh and dried, with a wild, “foxy” component. Breba crop very large in size, mostly sold fresh. Originated in southern Spain, introduced at San Diego 1769 from Baja California missions. 33% of fresh crop, 24% of dried.

* Panachee. (Tiger) Skin light yellow, with alternating bands of green; pulp strawberry; flavor variable, can be excellent. First described 1668; a home garden variety.

* Violette de Bordeaux. Small; skin purplish black with fine blue bloom; pulp deep red; best-tasting fig variety maintained at U.S. Germplasm Repository at Davis, with intense, complex flavor. More than 300 years old, grown in California since 1850s; a home garden variety.

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Fig Sources

* Avila and Sons. Fresh and dried, Calimyrna and Mission figs from Laton, Fresno County. At Santa Monica farmers market (Pico Boulevard at Cloverfield Avenue), Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Beverly Hills (North Canon Drive between Clifton and Dayton ways), Sundays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* Circle C Ranch. Nine varieties of fresh figs, including Conadria and Desert King, from Lake Hughes, Los Angeles County. At Santa Monica farmers market (Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street), Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Hollywood (Ivar Avenue between Sunset and Hollywood boulevards), Sundays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* Ditomaso Farms. Fresh White King, Kadota, Mission, Strawberry and Brown Turkey figs, from Camarillo, Ventura County. Available in a few days. At Ventura Midtown farmers market (Main Street and Mills Road), Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Thousand Oaks (Wilbur Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard), Thursdays 3 to 7 p.m.; Ventura downtown (Santa Clara and Palm streets), Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to noon; Santa Clarita (Valencia Boulevard and Rockwell Canyon Road), Sundays 8:30 a.m. to noon.

* Fetzner Fig Gardens. Fresh Brown Turkey, Conadria and Osborne Prolific figs, from Perris, Riverside County. Ripe in about two weeks. At Fullerton farmers market (450 W. Orangethorpe Ave.), Wednesdays 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Santa Monica (Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street), Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Redondo Beach (Harbor Drive south of Redondo Beach Pier), Thursdays 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Pasadena (2800 N. Sierra Madre Blvd.), Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Torrance (2200 Crenshaw Blvd.), Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon, Tuesdays 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Alhambra (East Bay State and Monterey streets), Sundays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* Fig Tree Ranch. Twenty-three varieties of organic figs, grown on site in Malibu. Available in about a week; for sale at stand. 29127 Pacific Coast Highway; open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; (310) 457-4356.

* La Pergola restaurant. Kadota, Mission, Genoa, Brown Turkey and Kalimata figs, grown in adjoining gardens, served fresh and in cooking. 15005 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; (818) 905-8402.

* MB Farms. Fresh and dried, Adriatic and Mission figs from Raisin City, Fresno County. At 15 farmers markets, including Citadel in Commerce (5675 E. Telegraph Road), Wednesdays 3 to 6 p.m.; Glendora (Glendora and Foothill avenues), Thursdays 5 to 9 p.m.; San Pedro (6th and Mesa streets), Thursdays 3 to 7 p.m.; Los Alamitos (Pine and Florista streets), Fridays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Irvine (Campus Drive at Bridge Road), Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Encino (17400 Victory Blvd.), Sundays 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Brentwood (11600 block of Chayote Street), Tuesdays 3:30 to 7 p.m.

* Scarabello Farms. Fresh and dried, Calimyrna and Mission figs from Fresno. At Fresno Vineyard farmers market (Shaw and Blackstone avenues), Wednesdays 2 to 6 p.m., Saturdays 6 a.m. to noon. Also at Mike Angelo’s Fig Connection stand at 6789 N. Weber Drive, at Herndon Avenue, in Fresno’s Fig Garden district; open Wednesdays through Mondays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; (559) 275-5350.

* Scattaglia Farms. Fresh Brown Turkey figs from Sylmar, Los Angeles County. At Santa Monica farmers market (Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street), Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Santa Monica (2640 Main St.), Sundays 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; West Hollywood (7377 Santa Monica Blvd.), Mondays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Tenerelli Orchards. Fresh Mediterranean Fiore, Mission, and St. John figs from Lakeview Terrace, Los Angeles County. Ripe in about two weeks. At Santa Monica farmers market (Arizona Avenue and 2nd Street), Wednesdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thousand Oaks (Wilbur Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard), Thursdays 3 to 7 p.m.; Ventura downtown (Santa Clara and Palm streets), Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to noon.