Ready for harvesting your ripe figs?
Your figs have been growing for a couple of months now, it’s August or September with the sweet fig smell in the air and they’re beginning to change color, some being eaten by birds, ants or surrounded by fruit flies. You ask yourself, “Are they ripe?”. Sometimes they’re ready once they’ve reached their ideal color for your fig variety. The best time for harvesting your figs regardless of the color is when you begin to see tiny white cracks in the skin.
This is the optimal time when the fig has reached the best flavor of sweetness. You can eat it right off the tree. Although some people like to rinse them first, or cut off areas that some bug affected. Mom likes to peel the skin off because it irritates her mouth. Other people bring them in to add to their favorite recipe. Whatever you do, keep in mind that they won’t last for more than maybe 2 days after the harvest. Since they have a lot of natural sugars and moisture, fungi is eager to grow on them. Your figs might not all be ripe at the same time, so it’s best to check on them regularly to find the ripe ones before nature sends in the critters.
How to pick
I had a young nephew ask me one day how to pick them off of the tree. I never thought someone would ask this question, but perhaps one of my readers has the same question even when in my mind it seems like common sense to know. In case if you haven’t figured it out, just grab the branch with one hand and carefully wiggle-pull the fig stem from the tree with the other hand and it will easily break off somewhere at or near the base of the stem. Try not to leave pieces of the fig on the tree to help avoid attacks from fungus or insects.
Harvesting tip
When you’re picking your figs be sure the mouth of the fig is nearly closed. I found one fig where it had a gaping wide mouth. Usually this indicates attack from an insect or perhaps a fig wasp. The best fig is one that has no large holes in it, you never know what’s inside when they look like this. Some people have named the mouth of the fig, an eye.
