Figs in the Garden A Global Passion
“FIG PEOPLE ARE CRAZY,” says Harvey Correia as he fills my cupped hands with fragile figs that are so ripe several ooze honey-colored liquid from the eye on their fat bottoms. I can’t tell if Correia considers himself a fig person, but he’s been talking figs for more than an hour. I’ve just been eating them — the large, plump, green ‘Strawberry Teardrop;’ the nearly black ‘Col de Dame Noir’ with its sparkling, nearly purple jam interior; the striped ‘Martinenca Rimada’ with pale seeds swimming in sweet magenta flesh; the green-and-bubble-gum-pink ‘Janice Seedless Kadota’ — ripping them in half with sticky fingers and slurping.
“Here’s one named for an island of France,” he says, plopping another into my palm. “And this one is ‘Rob’s Genovese Nero.’ I don’t care if the tractor hits it. But this one,” he says pointing to another, “this one is the ‘Black Madeira.’ That’s the money tree, wanted so badly in Thailand and Malaysia.”
According to Correia, a ‘Black Madeira’ tree has sold on the Thai black market for, the equivalent of almost $8,000, in a country where the average monthly wage is estimated at about $450.
