june 2018
savor
A SHORT HISTORY OF AN Ancient Tree
Legend has it that fig trees were planted in the hanging gardens of
Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar II. Greeks and Romans believed
this delicate fruit had been sent from heaven. They’ve been associ-ated
with Christmas since the time of Charles Dickens. Believed by
some to be the actual “forbidden fruit” eaten in the Garden of Eden,
since Adam and Eve clothed themselves in fig leaves after partaking,
they are steeped in a complex and symbolic history — a kind of
Holy Grail of fruits.
Figs are thought to be native to Asia Minor and western Asia, even-tually
spreading throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
The fig tree appears throughout the Old and New Testament of the
Bible, and Sumerian stone tablets dating back to 2500 B.C. have
recorded their culinary use. The remains of fig trees have been found
in excavations of Neolithic sites dating from 5000 B.C.
They were introduced into the New World by Spanish and
Portuguese missionaries, mainly to the West Indies in 1520 and to
Peru in 1528. From the West Indies, figs quickly spread across the
southeastern United States.
The first figs were reportedly flourishing at Parris Island, South
Carolina, by 1577. Two years later, they were in St. Augustine,
Florida, and by 1629 they had been introduced to Virginia via
Bermuda.
They were exported from the West Indies to Spanish missions in
Mexico, and spread to California where the Franciscan missionaries
planted them in their gardens in San Diego in the middle of the
18th century — hence the name “mission” for the dark purple
California figs we know and love today.
Thomas Jefferson had fig cuttings sent to Monticello from Paris
at the end of the 18th century. Jefferson’s passion for figs helped
promote varieties in Virginia and the Carolinas. He deemed the
White Marseille fig as being superior for its small seeds, jammy
taste and unique creamy, white flesh. In many areas of the South,
fig trees grew so abundantly that they became an accepted part of
the countryside landscape.
A vintage engraved illustration dated 1869 of a colossal fig tree growing on the island of Nuka Hiva in the South Pacific.
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WBM