Ficus carica 'Violette de Bordeaux' End Of Season Review 2023

 

 'Violette de Bordeaux'

 In these observations I am only referring to the main crop.

    This is one of those fig varieties I recommend you do a little research on or you might end up with a few of them in your collection under two or three different names. ‘Violette de Bordeaux’ translates to “Violet of Bordeaux”, a region in France, this dark French fig is common meaning it’s capable of ripening its main crop in areas that do not have the magical and most desired “fig wasp”. Some of the common synonyms you might find in the online market space will be; ‘Negronne’, ‘Vista’, ‘Nero 600m’, and ‘Petite Negri’ and there are a few more I’m aware of, most likely many more that I am not so check your inventory and watch out for the synonyms.

    In our short season maritime climate the main crop ripened towards the end of the season, pretty late. After 3 or 4 years of observing this variety I’ve noticed the figs ripen earlier and earlier each season as it matures but is still generally one of the last to ripen its main crop out of my collection. The tree has been a slow grower so far and it’s still young leaving plenty of room for improvements so I’m leaving it in ground for further observations.

     In a perfect world I would like ‘Violette de Bordeaux’ to ripen earlier in the Puget Sound region but really the only thing this variety lacks is vigor at a young age. I’ve seen others document how vigorous this cultivar can be once established so keep in mind when choosing a spot in the landscape that it may take longer to mature compared to other varieties. The growth has been quite compact with short node spacing and a lot of sprouts from down low on the trunk. Because of these habits I decided to let it naturally grow shrub like instead of pruning for a single leader tree.

    What this variety lacks in vigor at a premature age it makes up for with abundant fruit production and precociousness which tells me what this plants priorities are and where all of the energy is going. With all of this energy going into fruit production it’s clear why the tree stays small, until the root system builds up enough energy to push into vigorous shoots and branching each season. 

    I find the dark medium sized fruit to be just as beautiful as the compact shrub like structure of the tree which is why I chose this variety over a handful of others to grow in the front yard. The exterior of the fruit is longer than round in shape with a very tight to a completely closed eye. The exterior colors are a deep and rich saturated black with these wonderful little red and white dots that look like distant stars. You can tell there is this beautiful shade of deep purple that lives under these deep black tones where the colors transition at the neck from the saturated black to a rich purple, then followed by a trail of the most beautiful shades of neon pink I have ever seen. I was always into space growing up and if these colors remind me of anything it’s galaxies and the deep void of unknown emptiness. When I bite into these figs I noticed the skin can be tough if not well ripened but not in a bad way. I personally find this fig a pleasure to eat before it is completely ripe just as much as over ripe because the textures vary and change throughout the ripening stages.

     Being a later ripening variety paired with our climates unavoidable challenges one thing I worry about with a variety like this is the fruit cracking and going insipid due to higher moister levels that move in when this fig wants to ripen a main crop. I believe the tough skin helps keep this fig looking beautiful while others start deteriorating in the rain by keeping out moister out better than those varieties with really thin skin.

     The interior reminds me of a glossy blood red ruby with light hues of pinks. I observed the pulp to be quite dense with a delightful jam like texture. The seed crunch was light and due to the dense pulp, I found the cavity on almost all of the fruit to be mostly filled or completely filled in. The flavor profile was one of the most complex of all the figs I’ve tried from my collection throughout the season which surprised me because it ripened fruit in the harshest part of our season. The most standout flavors were a combination of strawberry and raspberry with a little bit of acidity. With the flavors being so complex it gets harder to translate into words but without a doubt this was one of my favorites. Not every fig in my collection leaves me walking away pondering what I just tasted and what I can compare it to.

Ficus carica 'Niagara Black' End Of Season Review 2023

 'Niagara Black' AKA 'Longue d'Aout'

 

            ‘Niagara Black’ is more commonly referred to as ‘Longue d’Aout’, a common cold hardy French fig whose name translates to “Long of August”. This variety is known for producing a somewhat unique breba crop whose fruit is medium to large and exceptionally long as opposed to its main crop; smaller, shorter, and more round than long.

 2023 will be the third or fourth year in ground and even more special, this is the first season it produced a crop. I was hoping I’d get to try some brebas but instead I was gifted a wonderful main crop for the first time and I thought a few things were worth mentioning here.

I found the growth to be semi-vigorous and the crop set to be mostly precocious, setting fruit at almost every node. The size of the figs from the main crop were small to medium sized and although this tree hasn’t produced a breba crop yet, it’s capable of producing two crops in our short season climate. I find this to be a positive trait when choosing a variety for the Puget Sound region because this means the fruit will ripen over a longer period of time. 

            Being an early ripening variety, ‘Niagara Black’ was able to ripen most of its main crop before the rainy season started, however, once the rain did set in most of the figs within a few days of ripening lost a lot of their flavor because of the slightly open and exposed eye. This can cause issues when it rains but the tree is young and may end up ripening fruit earlier in the season as it gets older. With that said, this variety does a good job bridging the ripening gap between ‘Archipel’ and ‘Conadria’.

 At first bite what comes to mind is a rush of sugary sweetness quickly followed up with a noticeable berry profile and honey undertones that sit in the background. The seed crunch is light and enjoyable with a thin skin that’s soft and peels if you brush it the wrong way. When I think about the textures of the interior what comes to mind is a light amount of honey or syrup and a whole lot of jam. The inside of this fig is as beautiful as it tasted with gradient pinks to reds and ambers. When you slice one of these figs open you can see the sweet glossy syrup that coats all of these beautiful colors. The exterior the fig presents itself with a brown undercoat as it ripens and depending on how much sun the tree gets a dark shade of a transparent like purple can develop sometimes covering anywhere from half to the entire fig. 

Ficus carica 'Conadria' End Of Season Review 2023

 

              'Conadria'    

    This seedling was selected by Ira Condit at the University of California, Riverside in the 1950’s to bring down the production costs for the ‘Fig District’ of San Jacinto Valley in California. 'Conadria was chosen for its vigorous growth and precocious desire to set a crop. The name ‘Conadria’ comes from (Ira Condit - Con / Adriatic - adria), being a cross between ‘Adriatic’ and a persistent caprifig, eventually replacing the former Adriatic/Verdone fig in production. 

    There are some good qualities that make ‘Conadria’ appealing enough to trial in our maritime climate, one of them being this cultivars ability to ripen two crops in our short growing season. Even though this fig is considered an early ripening cultivar in the warmer growing zones I would say that in my climate it can be more of a mid-season fig for us that ripens all the way up until we get repeated frosts and freezes in the beginning of November. ‘Conadria’ is without a doubt the most vigorous growing variety in my collection and along with its preciousness to set a crop I really think this variety would do well grown as a larger tree. It tends to grow just as wide as tall so consider where you plant it and if you need to keep it small expect to do some extra pruning.

    ‘Conadria’ seems to respond to each environment it’s grown in differently. I think this is why there are so many conflicting reports on how this cultivar behaves. Some report it to have a red interior and others say it’s more of an amber tone. Due to my weather conditions and other factors I experienced a main crop with more of a pink and faint amber interior with a purple ring around the center where the breba crop had more of a full and deep red interior with no purple at all. When it comes to the exterior, I notice when these figs get close to ripe they get a slight pale yellow undertone that gradually shows through the green and occasionally figs with sun directly on them show a little bit of blush. Majority of the figs were what I consider a medium sized fig with a few on the larger size and I should add that there were no small figs from this tree. Most of the figs had a completely closed eye but there were a handful with an eye that opened up just slightly, but not enough to spoil the fruit. Something to note about the exterior skin is that the brebas was much softer compared to the tougher main crop skin. Regardless breba or main, the skin is easy to peel away from the fruit giving you the option to pass on the skin if you don’t like the texture.

     This variety wasn’t bred to be a high quality fresh eating fig but I have to admit, I really liked the flavor profile. It was bred for its drying abilities and its productiveness, so with that in mind, if you know when to pick this fruit it can be a sugary treat and if you have a hard time eating as much as the tree offers then throwing some figs in the dehydrator is where this variety really shines. This is one of those figs that you have to let hang on the tree as long as possible before picking in order to get the quality of flavor it’s capable of producing. If you can hold yourself back from picking the fruits too early then you will be blessed with an abundance of sugar sweet figs that carry distant notes of honey and berry playing at the same time. It’s really hard to notice one distinct flavor more than the others because they blend together in such a way I can’t explain, but in each bite there is a noticeable sugary sweetness that keeps me coming back to the tree. The flavor between breba and main were similar but the texture was different. The brebas were syrupy, jammy and dense where the main crop seemed more permeable and jammy. Both had a light seed crunch that stuck around until the next bite and both crops provide me with exactly what we need more of in Western Washington, reliability.

     This varieties ability to ripen two crops, the fact that the eye is either closed or just slightly open, the vigorous growth and seemingly desperate need to set a crop, enjoyable flavors and textures, fantastic drying capabilities because the size of the fruit is actually respectable…I guess I’m saying this variety has sort of impressed me so far.

 

           

 

 

Nurseries, Plant, & Fungi Distributors

 Nurseries and plant distributors I have personally done business with. I would happily buy from each of them in the future. 

 39th Parallel Nursery & Orchard 

 https://39thparallel.com/

 

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

https://www.rareseeds.com/store

 

Burnt Ridge Nursery & Orchards
https://www.burntridgenursery.com/ 

 

Edelweiss Perennials 

https://edelweissperennials.com/

 

Edible Landscaping 

https://ediblelandscaping.com/

 

Field & Forest

https://www.fieldforest.net/ 

Figaholics

http://www.figaholics.com/

 

Fig Bid

https://figbid.com/

 

Fig Boss

https://www.figboss.com/

 

Fungi Perfecti

https://fungi.com/
 
Ison's Nursery & Vineyard
https://www.isons.com/
 
Johann's Garden & Nursery 
https://johannsgarden.square.site/

Just Fruits & Exotics

https://justfruitsandexotics.com/

 

Off The Beaten Path

https://offthebeatenpathnursery.com/ 

 

One Green World

https://onegreenworld.com/

Plant Delights Nursery

https://www.plantdelights.com/

 

Tinker Bug Figs

https://tinkerbugfigs.com/

Trade Winds Fruit

https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/

Whitman Farms

https://www.whitmanfarms.com/

Nurseries I have not done business with yet. Word around town has me interested based on their current reputation.

 

 Cloud Mountain Farm Center

https://www.cloudmountainfarmcenter.org/

 

Edible Acres

https://www.edibleacres.org/  

 

Fruitwood Nursery 

https://fruitwoodnursery.com/

 

Mckenzie Farms

http://mckenzie-farms.com/

 

 Rain Tree Nursery

https://raintreenursery.com/

Will's Figs

https://willsfigs.com/

 

Ficus carica 'Archipel' End Of Season Review 2023

 

 'Archipel'   A.K.A. 'Osborn Prolific'

    This was the second Ficus carica variety added to my collection and 2023 will be its fourth year in ground here in the Puget Sound USDA Zone 8b. Historically, there are two different figs that go by the name 'Archipel'. The one I grow and that I am describing is the common type that produces two crops each season. Even though it dropped its entire breba crop this year, the tree is still young and dropping fruit can happen. Last season I had a handful of breba figs before the wildlife in my garden realized what they were missing out on and took the remaining twenty or so from this tree.

    Although it dropped its entire breba crop, the trees extra energy went into a delicious and abundant main crop production. Main crop fruits started to ripen from the second or third week of September all the way up until our first freeze, around October 27^th, A week or so earlier than usual. It’s planted in a narrow, slightly raised bed with good drainage on the South East corner of the house. It gets a good amount of sun but less water naturally than other trees in the more open landscape. The soil stays on the drier side, especially in our dry summers when it’s too hot for me to get out and hand water every day.

    The growth habit has been semi-vigorous since I planted the tree in the ground and since the first year after it’s been precocious to produce a crop. This variety has noteworthy split resistance and because the skin is thin and soft the figs will crack when they start to droop and shrivel. I haven’t had a fig split and spoil from this variety as the cracks do not typically lead to a split. I let a few figs droop, crack, and wrinkle and most of them held onto the tree well past being fully ripe.

   As far as the size of the figs, I’ve observed that they vary from medium to large. Generally the main crop produces larger figs than its breba crop. I would say the breba figs are a medium size where the main crop figs can be medium to a large fruit. The eye on all of the breba were completely closed, but on the main crop they varied from completely closed to slightly open. Only one fig on the entire tree this year developed a large open eye and the birds ate it before it ever ripened.

    I get a similar flavor profile from each of these figs. The taste is like a Crème brulee married to a sweet and slightly burnt caramel with a soft and pleasant texture due to its soft skin and shy presence of seeds. So far the flavor and texture has been consistent from brebas to the main crop. I noticed this is the first year the figs tasted really good before they were “extra” ripe where as in the past they were bland at this stage. The last two seasons I had to let them get really ripe to the point of drooping and wrinkling in order to get to the good flavor it’s capable of producing but this year was not the case. Fruit was good well before what I consider completely ripe. 

    The color of these figs are more consistent in warmer climates but here in the Pacific Northwest we can get cold enough temperatures before the end of the season that the exterior color changes. The colors transition from a brown dominant profile with red striped undertones to a deep purple bottomed fruit that transition to a pinkish red on its way towards the neck or top of the fig. During the start of the cool weather rolling in at the end of summer is when you can see both brown and red figs on the same tree as darker purple ones affected by the cooler temperatures.

    I think this is a great fig for the Puget Sound region of Western Washington because of its tight eye resulting in a resistance to splitting and its ability to ripen two crops in our short growing season. When the tree matures a bit you can pick the figs a little earlier than recommended and still get some good flavor and texture. I also appreciate the color changing of the figs towards the end of summer transitioning into fall. Weather a brown and red fig or a purple fig the interior is always a golden yellow and the flavor is consistently sweet and sugary with a wonderful soft texture in each bite.