Click here for some recipes to use on your next picnic. Louise Fiszer Scientists tell us, that for the young, figs are one of the most-irresistible fruits of all. That is because they are intrinsically sweet, the taste that all newborns innately prefer. In fact a syrup made from figs was used as a sweetener by the Assyrians in 3000 B.C., a practice that continued into the Middle Ages. When sugar became scarce during the American Civil War fig syrup came back into vogue.
Scientists also insist that the fig is from a botanical prospective, an inside out strawberry.
Its seedlike fruit is surrounded by thick flesh, just the opposite construction of the strawberry. Figs have been cultivated for 6,000 years. They have the dubious distinction of being the first fruit in history selected for artificial ripening. During the Renaissance, figs were brought to England from Italy, but they were not cultivated in America until the eighteenth century when the Franciscan friars had them planted at the California missions. That was the origin of the Mission fig, the purple to black, fairly large variety, sold both fresh and dried.