Seattle Garden & Fruit Adventures: Tasting the Kathleen's Black 2018

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Tasting the Kathleen's Black 2018

Main crops in early September is a bit early for Seattle. I know know, you folks from the south get main crops in June sometimes, and I'm quite jealous about that but here in Seattle. They show up in Sept and Oct.

1 Crop

I picked a ripe Main Crop Kathleen's Black on 9/5/18. Which is unusually early.

Last year this Kathleen's Black didn't produce a ripe fig until October. So 9/5/18 is really early for this fig.

It might also be the reason why this particular fig that I picked was somewhat disappointing.

It lacked that caramel flavor that I loved about it last year. It also wasn't as sweet and the size was disappointingly small.

All of these characteristics though could be attributed to the fact that this might not be one of the better figs off of this tree. The finicky thing about figs is that it can favor the develop of one fig on the tree while aborting others on the same branch. I saw this on my Granthams Royal last year.

It was the strangest thing to see only one large fig while the others shrunk and withered. Check it out here.

Grantham's Royal 2017

This KB tasted a little acidic to me but not in a good sense. More of like it was beginning to turn. below average sweetness and lack of caramel flavor. I'm hoping the next ripe figs will be more on par with my expectations.

Sadly the 3 figs picked today (Kathleen's Black, Florea, and Palermo Sicily) were disappointing. Now it's only early September so these may not have ripened properly. I'm sure they will get better as the month progresses. I already see some tasty looking ones on the tree.