I’m obsessed with figs. I blame my mom. She was always trying to convince my grandma to give her a clipping of her fig tree so she could try to grow her own. That went on for around ten years before my grandma successfully had a clipping grow roots.
The tragedy of this story is that one year after my mom planted it, they sold their house. My dad never let her try again, and she was devastated.
Four years ago I planted my own tree and this year was like a fig feast. I got maybe a hundred in total and shared plenty with my mom. I even managed to root a clipping and I plan on giving it to her for a Christmas present, which I am very excited about.
If you’ve ever bitten into a fig and thought, “Wow, this feels like eating a little pocket of nature’s candy,” you’re not wrong. Figs are sweet, mysterious, ancient, not those strange dried things you might be used to, and weirdly misunderstood.
If you’re growing a Chicago Hardy fig (like I am!), welcome to the club. Whether you’ve got one in a pot or a whole backyard orchard, figs are one of the coolest plants you can grow!
But here’s the kicker I like telling people I give my figs to: figs aren’t even actually fruit. Yup. They’re technically inverted flowers, which is a fun way to blow most people’s minds.
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