Harvesting Figs

Hi. This is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we're going to talk about how to harvest figs. Now, fig is a beautiful tree and it's actually a member of the Ficus family. So, it grows really easy. You just put it in a sunny spot with good drainage and it'll grow lots of figs. Now your fig tree gives you two sets of figs. The first one is in the early summer and that's off of last year's growth and you'll find the figs ready to harvest when they almost start dropping, and they start drooping, and they just start getting a little bit soft. And, they actually, as soon as the first one falls, you will find that they are ready to harvest. Now, the first set of figs are not as good as the second set, and that's usually by late summer. The new growth will produce the figs and those figs are generally much sweeter and much larger and much nicer because they've had all summer to grow. And, then the same thing. As soon as they start dropping, or they get heavy, or they just starting a little bit soft, they sometimes get a little bit of a honey around them, that's the best time to harvest them and you can just pull em right off or twist them right off. Then just dry em on paper towels or right in paper bags and then that way you can store em and use them in all types of foods. And, I love my figs. You can make your own fig newton cookies with them or you can add them to salads. There's so many different uses for figs and they're a great tree to grow.