I need to get in gear and cut up a pile of cuttings of them. All the Chicago’s, Mission’s, Celestes and Negrone’s are gone now. Good ole dependable but boring. Sort of the McIntosh of figs I suppose. Does anyone else feel lacksidaical towards them?
Which Brown Turkey?
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Plain Jane Southern Standard Brown Turkey as far as I know. They are not darker like the improved version.
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I’ve got some of what was called California Brown Turkey. Hasn’t fruited yet, but the plant looks way different from my plain BT’s. The leaves look just like hands and I can’t resist high fiving them when I walk by. Anyone familiar with them?
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I absolutely do not feel lackadaisical about Hardy Chicago or any of the other Mt. Etna types.
Here are the virtues of Hardy Chicago:
- Grows well in the ground in zone 7 Arkansas. (I don’t grow figs in pots.)
- Even when we get a horrible winter and the tree dies back to the ground, it will grow like a weed and give solid production in the immediately following summer.
- The figs don’t drop (like Celeste for me), and they don’t split.
- Size is decent (better than Celeste).
- The figs are absolutely delicious. I know that others will now chime in that Hardy Chicago has second-tier taste; but I know what I like, and I make not a single apology for my love of the taste of Hardy Chicago figs.
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Agreed. The Chicago’s I had evaporated quickly. I did not get to keep any for here as the wife sold them. I’m hoping to go back to the estate and see if there are more available.
I should really get the Brown Turkey limbs trimmed to size. The buds are plumping up and really trying to green up. They are screaming for soil.
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There is no standard Brown Turkey. Two different cultivars usually sold under the same name were brought to the U.S. Ira Condit distinguished them as “California Brown Turkey” and “English Brown Turkey”. The former has been more widely distributed in the U.S. The latter is similar to Archipel. Additional cultivars with similar appearances (to either) are sold as Brown Turkey world wide.
Being Georgia’s Brown Turkey Fig was introduced by the English Colonial “Trustee’s” in the 1700’s; I would say that one. The same time that Mulberries arrived. At any rate; we feel it’s pretty standard by now. You can quite often find them on abandoned homes and plantation properties growing ferally. All of which were kept stocked from the Trustee Garden in Savannah established 1734.
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The most common Brown Turkey in Georgia is distributed by AgriStarts.
Could be now. But it does not likely challenge the nearly 300 year head start of the imported figs well marketed by many different nurseries in that time. Pretty sure we do not have the California version in much number.
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I’m happy enough to eat them and always have been. I’m growing it out of zone in a pot in my living room at the moment
I don’t subscribe to the ‘fruit as fine wine’ philosophy.
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Well they are lively growers; that is for sure.
For the past twenty years. The majority of homeowners do not have access to those estate figs, nor do nurseries stock them anymore. Consequently there is no standard Brown Turkey in Georgia, nor could your average consumer tell them apart.
I’m sure just Lawson’s distributed enough to sink a few battleships in their long illustrious multi-generational history of selling fruit trees across the United States. They had wagon and train carloads spread by jobbers since the 1850’s.
Weird. Your Agristarts!
Brown Turkey Common Fig. Sounds real standard to me…lol
Not saying there are not special boojie fancy versions. But around here on the upper and lower coastal plain; it’s just the plain old, everyday dependable standard Brown Turkey Fig. And Agristarts seems to agree.
Cool you have access to the old estate plantings. Do you have any pictures of the fruit? The two brown turkeys are pretty distinct from one another i believe.
No. I just have the cuttings right now. If I remember I will stop by there are look again. As some of the trees were just setting the second crop. They should be sizable and grey brown now. About to bronze up for full ripeness. This house is interesting as it was the remaining 17 acre plot of a farm that is now mostly the major shopping mall area of Waycross Georgia. I only have permission for about 4 acres though. There are clearly a lot of other fruit & nut trees visible near the main barn, and they said especially in the old tenant houses which back up to the Walmart these days. Disappearing Georgia.
yeah, guess so. hang on to what you can
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Yes you see it a lot. If you google “Glory” Georgia you might pull up an old map showing the town that no longer stands. I used to visit the last remaining resident there. It was nuts really. You could only find the road by the massive brick smokestack from a mill that use to be on US Highway 82. But back then the entire downtown still stood. Many old western style brick buildings with covered walks. Goods still erily left on the shelves. After the lady passed; some local hoodlums burned down her grand old victorian era home. And a few of them were injured. So the county bulldozed the whole old company town. Pity it could not have been preserved.
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I love John Prine, and he has that great song on his original self titled album called ‘Paradise’ about the town in Kentucky his folks grew up in before moving up to Chicago. The backstory is he was drafted and after returning from service, asked his dad about the old home place, but “Mr. Peabody’s coal train had hauled it away” in his absence. One day I was looking at google Earth and had a notion to see what Paradise, KY actually looked like. The name of the town couldn’t be more ironic.
I was glad when I read that Prine’s ashes had been made to flow down the Green River through Paradise, just as the verse in his song had stipulated.
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