For those who have never seen or had a fresh, ripe fig before, this is as good as it gets. Giovanni has a gorgeous 30 year old Paradiso fig tree in his South Philly backyard (I just took a trip down to see the tree and talk to Giovanni, but that's for another post) full of ripe and ripening green figs.
Giovanni delivers his figs about twice a week – approximately 20 dozen figs with each delivery – through October. The figs are sold for $4 a half dozen. Yes, they're expensive, but they're better than any California fig you'll ever have here on the east coast.
What makes these figs different from those red/brown/maroon figs you see elsewhere? Well, these have a much denser taste to them. Almost a thick syrupy flavor instead of the sweeter taste of others.
Giovanni dropped off 31 dozen figs yesterday so there should be plenty today, but who knows how long they'll last; people come buy all day searching them out as he's been delivering them to the Farmstand for the last few years and nobody's ever seen these green figs before. They're quite memorable.
Messy would like it if Picky made some homemade Fig Newtons. Picky thinks that's blasphemy. They are to be eaten raw. Or maybe grilled with Shellbark Hollow Farm's Goat Chevre.
I'll be writing about recent fig foraging outings all around Philadelphia as well as a writeup on the talk I had with Giovanni in his driveway. I'm fig crazy.
Fair Food Farmstand
Tu – Sat: 8a – 6p
Su: 9a – 5p
Mon: Closed
215.627.2029
Reading Terminal Market
11th & Arch Sts
Wow, those are some lovely-looking figs! My vote would be to eat them with goat cheese… but is that really a surprise?
My neighbor just gave me 2 giants bags of figs. YUMMY!
my God those figs look incredible… any left??
[...] figs! We're in season for a few more weeks, right?! So, let's say you have a dozen of Giovanni's paradiso figs and you have a little bit of patience and don't want to just rush in and eat them all in one [...]