Fig

Scientific name: Ficus carica
Common name: Common fig

Belongs to the Moraceae family. A lover of warm, sunny environments, it does not require a lot of water. It is a short-stemmed, often branched tree of small size. The bark is finely wrinkled and ash gray in color. The branches are richly pithy with sharp terminal buds covered with two green, or brownish, scales. The dark green leaves are very recognizable, large and lobed with 3-5 lobes. Are you really familiar with its fruits? The fig is the most emblematic example of syconium infructescence. What we eat is not the fruit of the plant, but its flower or rather its infructescence. In nature, there are male and female fig plants. The former produces the pollen and produces non-edible fruit. The female, on the other hand, produces the true fig, or rather the seeds contained in the edible fruits. The real fruits of the plant are really the tiny seeds inside the fleshy pulp that we love so much!

The fig is believed to be from Asia Minor, but its ancient spread was in the Mediterranean basin. To the Greeks it was a holy tree. One legend says the fig tree grew only on Mount Olympus and only the gods had the privilege of eating it. Someday Demeter, who was wandering the Earth in quest of her daughter Persephone, donated the precious fruit to a farmer in Attica who was hospitable to her. From the fig's seeds the man grew a tree and over time spread the species all across Greece.

Rich in vitamins and minerals, restorative and energetic, they contain potassium, calcium, iron, sodium, phosphorus, copper, zinc and vitamins. Excellent allies of the immune system, they regularize blood pressure, protect the heart, heal the skin, and strengthen teeth and bones. The dried fruit is a real energy bomb. Drying figs makes it possible to obtain a healthy and wholesome product available throughout the winter, as it increases the mineral content-especially potassium and iron-but also the sugar content. Dried figs become, therefore, a very valuable restorative and energizer.