Trees around the Valley are laden with ripening figs, according to an article in the Merced Sun-Star today that said harvest typically takes place in the final weeks of June. Writer Jonah Owen Lamp centered his story on the fig orchard of Tonetta Gladwin, a third-generation fig grower in Merced County.
"I believe that Eve gave Adam a fig, not an apple," she was quoted in the story, adding that apples are not indigenous to the Middle East. "The fig was the downfall of man."
However, she said, the fresh fig still has an anonymity in the U.S. produce industry. Lamb turned to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Maxwell Norton for perspective on Merced's fresh fig industry.
He said 12 farmers tend the 2,000 acres in Merced County that are planted to figs. While most of the growers sell dried figs, the 10 percent growing fresh figs has been on the rise for some time.
Norton said that part of the reason so few people buy fresh figs in America is that they are relatively unknown. That's surprising considering their prominent role in the creation story shared by many Christians, Jews and Muslims scattered all over the world.
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