Fig History in World

Fig History in WorldA Research Report ByMr Allah Dad Khan

11000 Yrs ago

By about11,000 years ago, people in West Asia had already begun to farm fig trees. Farmed figs may be the first kind of food that anybody farmed, even beforewheatandbarley. The big advantage to farming figs is that wild figs can only reproduce when tinywaspsget inside the fruit to get the pollen. People can reproduce figs by planting small branches from a tree to grow new trees, and in that way people can eat figs without the tiny wasps inside them.

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11400 BCThe Fig has a long and storied history. It has followed the footsteps of mankind around the world and become a highly valued fruit in many regions. Archaeological finds of this mystical fruit date as far back as around 11,400 B.C.! It has even been posited that the Forbidden Fruit was a Fig, not the apple most commonly portrayed in the Fall of Adam and Eve.

5000 BCThe fig is believed to be indigenous to Western Asia and to have been distributed by man throughout the Mediterranean area. It has been cultivated for thousands of years, remnants of figs having been found in excavations of Neolithic sites traced to at least 5,000 B.C.

5000 BCThe fig is believed to be indigenous to Western Asia and to have been distributed by man throughout the Mediterranean area. It has been cultivated for thousands of years, remnants of figs having been found in excavations of Neolithic sites traced to at least 5,000 B.C.

2500BC Historical Sumerian tablets record the use and consumption of figs in 2500 BC

1520 BCThe fig tree, 'Ficus carica,' possibly originated in Northern Asia according to archeological fossil records. Spanish missionaries brought it to the United States in 1520.

146 BCThe Roman statesman Cato the Elder persuaded Rome to go to war over a fig. He explained the nearness of the Carthaginian threat (Carthage was in what is now Tunisia) by showing the Senate a fresh fig and saying this was picked three days ago in Carthage. Rome then destroyed Carthage in the Third Punic War (146 BC).

52-113 AD In Roman times figs were considered to be restorative. They were believed to increase the strength of young people, to maintain the elderly in better health and to make them look younger with fewer wrinkles. Pliny (52-113 AD).

1162 ADThe Remains of The Old Fig Tree Planted by Thomas Becket about AD 1162 seems rather far fetched although it no doubt impressed the tourists!

1525-1548 ADFigs were introduced into England some time between 1525 and 1548. It is not clear when the common fig entered China but by 1550 it was reliably reported to be in Chinese gardens. European types were taken to China, Japan, India, South Africa and Australia.

1550 ADChina but by 1550 it was reliably reported to be in Chinese gardens. European types were taken to China, Japan, India, South Africa and Australia.

1552 ADThe first fig tree thought to have been planted here is attributed to Cardinal Pole (later Archbishop of Canterbury) who planted a tree in the garden of the Palace at Lambeth around 1552. T

1560 ADThe first figs in the New World were planted in Mexico in 1560.

1579 ADAlthough figs were apparently quite commonly grown here throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the books of the period record very few varieties. Thomas Hill in 1579 mentions the Greater Bleu and the Dwarf Blue as the best to plant in England, but only against a wall

1629 AD

Parkinson, writing in 1629 mentions two tall growing types

1669 AD Figs were introduced into California when the San Diego Mission was established in 1769. Later, many special varieties were received from Europe and the eastern United States where the fig reached Virginia in 1669.

1700 ADAlthough the exact cultivar of fig he planted isnt known, White Marseilles fig trees were recorded as growing in the Palace gardens in 1700s and may well have originated from Poles original tree.

1745 ADThe Tarring Fig Gardens have a long history of being a commercial market garden and stopping off point for visitors to the area. They are thought to have been established around 1745 with cuttings taken from fig trees in a nearby garden

1769 AD Figs were introduced into California when the San Diego Mission was established in 1769.

1825 ADBy 1826 The Royal Horticultural Society listed 75 fig cultivars in their collection at Chiswick, but many were identical to one another but known by a different name (a synonym). This irritating problem is very common with figs and is still with us today, and will be until genetic fingerprinting becomes more widespread.

1882 ADhe Mission fig, Californias leading black fig, takes its name from this history. The popular Calimyrna fig, golden brown in color, is the Smyrna variety that was brought to Californias San Joaquin Valley from Turkey in 1882, and was renamed Calimyrna in honor of its new homeland.

1892 ADFigs made their first commercial product appearance with the 1892 introduction of Fig Newtons cookies.

1920 ADDesert King(Charlie, King)Origin Madera, Calif. 1920. San Pedro type. Large, skin is deep green, minutely spotted white, pulp strawberry red. Sweet, delicious fresh or dried. Commonly matures good fruit without caprification near the coast. Tree highly vigorous. Hardy, best adapted to to cool areas such as the Pacific Northwest.

1951 ADThe demise of the Tarring Fig Gardens didnt signal the end of interest in growing figs commercially in England. A fruit farmer called Justin Brooke took up the challenge in 1951 by importing several different figs from France as a way of extending the range of fruits he grew. Mr Brooke owned a 300 acre commercial fruit farm near Newmarket, Suffolk, growing the usual sorts of fruit but was blessed with an experimental frame of mind and was particularly sceptical of the conventional view that figs were hardly worth growing outdoors in the central areas of Britain

1959 ADValley Fig Growers was established in 1959 and is the largest handler of figs in North America. The cooperative has 30 grower members representing about 40% of the California fig industry.

1963 ADJustin Brooke died in 1963 and his visionary outdoor peach and fig orchards are now all gone, replaced once more by conventional crops. Sadly, to my knowledge no-one else has taken up the challenge of growing figs commercially in Britain and certainly not as an outdoor orchard crop.

1956 ADConadriaOrigin Ira Condit, Riverside 1956. First artificial hybrid fig. Fruit pale green, medium, flesh strawberry red. Mildly sweet. Good fresh, excellent dried. More productive than Adriatic but of lesser quality. Light breba crop. Tree vigorous, tends to excessive growth under irrigation, best in hot climates.

1965 ADFrandersOrigin I.J. Condit, Riverside, 1965. Seedling of White Adriatic. Medium, long neck, skin is brownish yellow with violet stripes, flesh amber. Strong, fine flavor. Excellent all-purpose fruit. Good breba crop. Ripens late. Tree vigorous but requires no great pruning. For south coastal California, San Joaquin Valley.

1984 ADLenOrigin Leonard Jessen, Pasadena, 1984. Seedling of Black Mission. Fruit smaller than Mission, black, pulp pink, quite sweet.

1986 AD

Judy

Origin Leonard Jessen, Pasadena, 1986. Probable seedling of California Brown Turkey. Large and broad, fruit is brown to black, pulp pink.