April 17, 2023 • 37 mins
Figs aren't actually a fruit -- they're an inside-out cluster of flowers -- but they're one of humanity's oldest food sources. In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren dig into the long history and bizarre reproduction cycle of the fig.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm more.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In Vogelbaum, and today we have a classic episode for
you about figs.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yes, yes, any recent figs were on your mind.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It was just in the episode rotation. I guess I
was looking for a fruit and or vegetable or a
protein at the time when I was planning this out,
and so I was kind of just looking through the
list and figs seemed like a great episode, and I
gave it a listen, and I was like, that was
a great episode. We got to talk a lot about
(00:43):
fig wasps, which is one of my favorite subjects.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh yeah, I remember that was one of the first
things I remember you talking about when we were mentioning,
like maybe we should do this food.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Show and big Wasp came up and I was like, yes,
like nature is really weird, let's talk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I have no news updates about figs to share with anyone,
although I think this was one of the foods that
you weren't sure if you had ever had a fresh
fig when we recorded this. Have you since then? Since
March of twenty eighteen, Annie achieved a fig.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
This sounds like such a like I'm in the hot seat,
I'm in the gotcha have you I have? Oh yeah, yes,
I believe I mentioned in this episode. I have a
friend who loves figs. She came through.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, oh great, fairly recently.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
We went well, fairly recently. Time is so relative now
like a year ago. Okay, it's fairly recent.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
We went on a trip and she had she brought
fresh figs. Oh it was really good. I really liked it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh no, they're lovely, right man, I think, like I
think I basically missed fig season this past year. So
I'm gonna have to pay attention. I'm gonna have to
pay more tension this year and get them on. They're fresh,
because oh they're so good. They're just so nice. It
goes so nice, so well with just like with like
a nice cheese or just pigs.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and they pack a lot, They pack a lot flavor.
They do in a small package.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
M mmmm. Well, here's my update.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Excellent, no good, good update, thanks.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
But I suppose we should get into this classic episode.
So let's let pass Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello,
and a kind of food stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I'm Annie reach and I'm Lauren vocal Bam and today
we're talking about figs.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
And Lauren is very excited to talk about figs.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, mostly because of insects. Yes, but we'll get to
that later.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's kind of a horror. It reminds me of Alien
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it's definitely it gets real weird. I hope you're
looking forward to it as much as I am.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
But first, figs, Yeah, what are they?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
They're both the fruit and the flower of a tree,
like a small tree or large shrub in the Ficus genus.
If you've never seen one, A fig is maybe the
size of like a pingpong ball, but tear drop shaped.
They have a thin, edible skin that may be yellowish
green or purplish, purple or brown or even black, encasing
a pale, pulpy lining, and many many wee orangish or
(03:39):
reddish florrets and yellow seeds. Every fig that you eat
contains dozens or even thousands of flowers and seeds. Figs
taste very sweet and a little bit like green grassy,
and have this interesting soft, sort of silky, sort of
crunchy texture from all of those florets and seeds.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Hmm. I'm to say, I don't have much experience with figs.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
No, I've probably had like maybe four in my lifetime,
fresh dried, both fresh fresh figs and then fig jam huh.
But I have a friend who is a fiend for figs.
She'll ask me if she's coming up with should I
bring figs? And I always say yes, if you want them.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, it's one of those scarcity things because now they
are only only good for like a very brief time
period and they don't ship well. So right, the fresh
ones are hard to get a hold of. The dried
ones are kind of everywhere.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'll have to keep an eye out for them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And there are hundreds of types of figs aside from
the common fig Ficus karica. And for added fig confusion,
when a type of fig is introduced or discovered in
a new country, a lot of times they give it
a different name, meaning one fig could go by several
different titles depending on where you are.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
They're related to Indian banyan trees and Indian rubber trees,
are both also in the genus the latter. Ficus benjamina
is a producer of natural latex rubber or rubber latex
rather as a sort of sap and fig trees and
fig fruits also contain latex, which is useful for many things,
but can also be an irritant. If you've ever felt
(05:16):
like a little bit of itch or burn on on
your mouth or lips while you're eating a fig, that's
what's up.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Figs are native to a stretch of land that spans
from Turkey to northern India, but you can find them
growing in a majority of the Mediterranean countries as well.
They also grow anywhere with a climate that's on par
with the Mediterranean, like Chile, Australia, South Africa, and parts
of the US. In South Africa's Vonderboom Nature Reserve, there's
(05:42):
a large grove of one thousand plus year old parent
daughter fig trees encompassing a fifty meter or one hundred
and sixty four feet area. Surrounding the mother fig are
three layers of daughter trees, a total of thirteen trunks.
The branches of the doughter trees, with time of sag
to the ground and form roots for new trees. Oh wow, yeah,
(06:03):
and attached around the mother tree. It's really beautiful and
quite huge. It looks like something out of the Lion King.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh, look it up if you're interested.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
The name fig derives from the Latin word ficus and
the Hebrew word feg. It most likely was first used
when the Romans invaded England, as that was the first
time the English would have seen fig trees. It was
widely adopted for general commercial use by twelve fifty CE.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
There are also a number of figurative terms around the fig.
There's a Greco Roman and or Shakespearean English use of
the word fig as vulgar slang for the word vulva oh,
apparently from the look of a ripe fig that's been
split open. And there's also an accompanying gesture which still
(06:51):
carries a slightly vulgar connotation, wherein you put your your
thumb tip either between your two middle fingers when you're
making a fist oh no, or the tip of your
thumb between your teeth, or like up against your your
upper teeth. This totally happens in Romeo and Juliet. In
the opening sequence, one of the capulets mocks some of
(07:12):
the Montagues by biting his thumb at them, Sir yeah man, rough.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Every time I find out about some of these I've
rapidly brushed through times in my life. I've probably done
it and offended someone or either just been the source
of laughter.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's probably more it, I don't think anyway. There's also
a sense of the word fig as in a full fig,
as in a full state of dress or preparedness, perhaps
either from the abbreviation fig from figure used in illustration
plates and old books, or from Adam and Eves fig.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Leaves could be either, who knows.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
As far as nutrition goes, figs have a high fiber
and calcium content and decent amounts of potassium, iron, polyphenols,
and flavonoids, so.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They're nutritious ish. They also contain a lot of sugar,
about five times as much sugar as fiber.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yes, they have.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Been and still are used medicinally as well, especially as
a laxative, are a diuretic, and as a care for boils.
Oh As of two thousand and five, Turkey produced the
most figs, with Egypt holding the second spot.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Since figs both don't keep.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Very long, as Lauren mentioned, after you pick them and
they don't do so great and they're being transported, a
lot of the commercial fig products involves some type of
processing like dried figs or jam. Worldwide production is about
a million metric tons per year, and the fig is
such a common food in the Mediterranean that has earned
the title the poor man's food. I hear in England
(08:46):
there's a saying I don't give a fig. Please write
in to confirm people from England listening.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
In the United States, California grows about ninety eight percent
of our figs as of twenty twelve, About ninety four
percent of those were grown again to be dried or
otherwise processed.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Figs can be picked and packed fresh in the field
by hand or left to dry on their trees, and
then treated and sometimes pressed to produce dried figs and
then later processed into other stuff. It takes about four
pounds of fresh figs to produce one pound.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Of dried Okay, I got a question for you before
we continue. Yeah, have you had a lot of dried
figs in your day?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I guess I have. Yeah. I was kind of big
on them as a snack for a while there. I was.
I was doing a lot of like trail mix kind
of things because it was only the only way that
I could responsibly get myself to eat like not potato chips.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Okay, okay, so maybe I'm just trying to figure out
as someone who has very little experience.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Are they mostly eaten just a laon or in trail
mixes and salads like dried figs specifically?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, yeah, I think that they're they're often because they're
they're pretty large. They're again like about the size a
ping pong baller, maybe a little bit smaller, so are
they can be some of them are a little bit tinier,
like like a like a large fresh grape guys. So
so they're they're frequently cut into pieces or or chopped
up and then maybe put into baked goods or used
(10:16):
as a as a sugar substitute in jam form okay
or yeah, yeah, fresh figs definitely are used a lot.
My favorite way to eat fresh figs is on pizza.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Oh hey, yeah, it's ludicrously delicious, but but yeah, they're
They're really good with a with like a sprinkle of balsamic,
on top of a salad or just.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Just about any way you want to eat them. Okay,
I'm a big fig fan is as well.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Okay, okay, awesome, I just wanted to, you know, pick
your brain.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
That's Annie's question of.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
The episode for Lauren. All right, please continue. Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The leaves, aside from adorning, Adam and Eve, can be
used for cattle feed or processed by the perfume industry
to cate like a woody mossy smelling absolute.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Okay, is that like for men?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
This is another question for anyone. I suppose I'm just wondering,
you know, depends on what you want to smell like.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Okay, Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And the latex from fig plants can be used in
place of rennett to coagulate milk and create cheeses.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wow. Yeah, that's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
As of twenty fifteen, the global fig export market was
valued around four hundred and twenty nine million dollars, though
that's probably only a fraction of the value of the
total production market of figs, as many figs are consumed domestically. Peru,
for example, only exports some three percent of its fig production,
and it's about the largest producer in South America. And
(11:49):
he looked down as though she would find they'd like
like the answers to why Peru does this in our notes.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Alas, I didn't know. However, there is an anonymous pumpkin.
In our outline, there is if.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
You're the anonymous pumpkin, let our know, let us know, Yes,
please do. There's also here an ad break, after which
we will continue into the history, the long, long history
of this amazing fruit slash flower.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Thank you. So our pre human ancestors probably eight wild figs.
Researchers think this because chimpanzees in some areas make figs
essentially their entire diet for a couple months out of
the year.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh really yeah, a diet of figs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
In either case, figs are one of the first fruits
primitive humans cultivated. Nine fossilized figs found in the Jordan
Valley near Jericho suggest cultivation may go as far back
as nine four hundred BCEO. If this is true, it
makes figs one of the first, if not the very first,
known case of agriculture. And some historians, as we've sort
(13:10):
of hinted at and mentioned in other episodes, think that
instead of the apple or the banana, as we said
in Banana episode, the fig was the fruit.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Used to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ah. Yeah,
and at the very least fig leaves were used as
their covering of choice, so it would make sense this
use of fig leaves in the place of loin cloths
pops up in several famous and not so famous artworks
throughout history. Sometimes these fig.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Leaf coverings were added after the piece was finished to
appease the delicate sensibilities of art collectors. Heaven forbid, I
see anything that I cannot handle.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
These fig leaves.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Over fig leaf blinders.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yes, perfect, yes, outside of loin cough substitutes. The Bible
references the fig a handful of times. One quote each
man under his own vine and fig tree has since
been used to mean peace and prosperity. One fig, the
picus religiosa, or the sacred fig, holds religious significance in Buddhism, Hinduism,
(14:17):
and Jainism. Buddhist legend goes that Siddharta Gautama was sitting
under a sacred fig tree a bo or Bodhi tree
when he was enlightened.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Ancient Egyptian priests may have eaten figs at their consecration ceremonies.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
In religions around the world, figs do symbolize peace, prosperity,
and fertility. The prophet Mohammad allegedly named the fig as
the fruit he hoped most to find in Paradise. Oh yeah,
big fan too. Figs probably originated in the northern part
of Asia. Minor records of figs used for food purposes
(14:51):
on ancient Sumerian tablets go back to twenty five hundred BCE.
From there they spread throughout the Mediterranean with the Romans
and the Greeks. The diet of ancient Romans included a
decent amount of figs.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Are old. While Plenty wrote about twenty nine varieties.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
He had one hundred and eleven observations on figs.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
In fact, I kind of want to read them, honestly,
one hundred and eleven. That's quite impressive. According to him,
figs were a food staple for slaves in their place
of origin. He also wrote about its potential health benefits.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Including this fruit invigorates the young and improves the health
of the aged and retards the formation of wrinkles, and
also mixed with axle grease. Fig milk removes wartz axle grease.
Not sure I A mystery of history.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
In the Greek myth of Romulus and Remus, the brothers
twins were nursed by the she wolf under a fig tree,
and to convince the Roman Senate to go to war
for the third time with Carthage around one hundred and
fifty BCE, Cato the Elder brought to the debate a
handful of figs from Carthage as an.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Example of how close the threat was.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And it worked on two levels, because he also accused
the senators of being feminine, like the insides.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Of a fig.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Ah, I know, harsh, diss very.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I mean, come on, Kato, hate it when people call
me feminine? Yeah, it's the worst, right.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Ancient Greece enjoyed quite a bit of figs as well,
and the Spartans included it as an item at their
public tables and public tables if you're like me and
we're like who they were meals that were open to
everyone in certain groups. So I imagine like sorority dinners or
something is modern equivalent. It was another food that ancient
(16:45):
Greek olympians ate to improve performance. Figs even play a
role in Greek myth. The story goes that Apollo instructed
a crow to fetch him some water, but the crow
saw a fig tree and could not resist. Waiting around
in the branches for some sweets fruit to ripen. To
cover his tardiness and escape punishment, the crow scoops up
a snake along with some water from the stream and
(17:07):
blames the snake for his lateness. Apollo is not fooled, however,
for he is a god, and he hurls the snake,
the crow and the goblet. I guess the crow had
to collect water into the sky, forming the constellation's hydra,
corvus and crater.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh yeah, I have little stories like that. Yeah. Bacchus
from Latin myth believed the fig was sacred and used
it ceremonially. Oh and here's another fun I love this. Yeah. Yeah.
In Greece, figs were known as sykes. I'm gonna get
six would make more sense.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yes, there we go.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Sorry, it looks like sykes, but it is probably pronounced
six after ancient Greek city Sicion that was known for
its figs. Big fans of figs, the Athenians earned the
nickname sickle, which translated to fig revealers, and the word
came to mean slanderer in ancient Greek. Historians think this
(18:07):
is because of the tax imposed on figs brought to
markets by Greek farmers. Some farmers would try to skirt
the tax, and the farmers that snitched were called fig revealers.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, or it could come.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
From another meaning of the word fig for a gesture
or sign of contempt what Lauren was talking about earlier.
It wasn't until English speakers adopted the word in the
sixteenth century that took on its current meaning of flat
or succah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Dried figs were plentiful enough to sometimes replace bread in
the ancient Mediterranean. The Greeks also made fig wine and
would fatten geese on figs and then eat their livers
as a delicacy. Before sugar happened, figs were a common
way to sweeten and help preserve foods.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
M written mention of figs and China traspect to the
eighth century CE.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
The writer describes them as fruits without blossoms. They may
go back to one hundred and twenty seven CE, when
the Emperor put together an expedition to Central Asia, but
there is no definitive proof of that.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Figs were for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Growing in China by the fourteenth century CE, but they
may not have been the common fig we know in
the fifteen twenties, the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries to the
colonies and the New World began introducing fig trees in
the Caribbean and then later along the East coast of
North America. As mentioned, the top figs probably came to
(19:31):
England with the invading Romans, but the trees.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Died out after the Romans left.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
They were reintroduced during the rule the Rule of Henry
the Eighth and records from fifteen forty eight described fig
trees being planted in England. A bit later in fifteen
ninety seven, descriptions say, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here
that fig trees never mature unless they are planted. They're
a hot wall. They're a hot wall, a hot wall. Okay,
(19:56):
I'm going to guess there's some temperature thing happening there,
sure U.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Spanish Franciscan missionaries brought fig trees to the West coast
of America beginning in seventeen sixty nine. This variety would
develop into the mission fig the mission fig missionaries Mission figs.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
In the eighteen eighties, there was another variety introduced to
California that had a little bit more trouble. The Smyrna
fig for a decade. There were all of these cuttings
and seeds planted, but their fruit fell off the trees
without maturing. It was almost an international scandal. Folks were
all going, those Smartin's fooled us with lousy stocks, those Smirnins,
We should abandon this fig folly, not fig folly that
(20:37):
a writer literally wrote fig lovely in an article from
the time. But the farmers eventually worked it out, with
the particular perseverance and no little snark from one George c.
Roading of Fresno, who was in his family's fruit business.
There it would take ten years, multiple trips to Turkey,
painstaking experiments with hand pollination, and help from entomolaists before
(21:00):
they managed to get a good crop. And yes, entomologists.
They had to import not just the fig plants, but
the Blastophaga grosorum, a type of fig wasp, to pollinate
those figs. Ooh again with the insects. More on that
just a little bit later. Sufficed to say that it worked,
and the California fig industry was booming by the end
(21:22):
of the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And then in eighteen ninety one, the fig Newton became
commercially available after cookie maker Charles M. Roser sold the
recipe to Nabisco, which at the time was called Kentucky
Biscuit Works.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
If you don't know what these are, they.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Are short, rectangular soft cookies filled with fig jam I
kind of associate them with sad sadness. No no, no, no,
just like you're you're hoping for something better and side
of school lunch and.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And it's just a fake Newton.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, they're fine, they're fine.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I went through a big fag Newton fan. I still
have a kind of nostalgia for them.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh, I did read a lot of people have a
nostalgia for them. The mass productions of these fig Newtons
was made possible with the invention of a machine that
operated sort of like having two funnels, one inside the other,
and through the bigger funnel went the dough and the
smaller funnel went the filling into one long cookie that
(22:26):
was cut into bite sized pieces.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh okay, yeah, a series of tubes, Yes, a series
of tubes.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
That's what the Internet is. That's what I hear.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
First, the cookies were simply called Newton's. Allegedly, the machine's inventor,
James Henry Mitchell named the machine after physicist Isaac Newton,
but in actuality they were named after Newton, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
The fig part of the name was added a bit
later in response to the generally positive reaction to the
filling Yeah Newtons a FIG Jamboree.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Jeteen fifty one ad called it.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
They were called cakes until a nineteen eighties rebrand advertised
them as chewy cookies.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
In a bit of a funny twist.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
The fig was dropped in twenty twelve, so they once
again are simply called Newton's Yeah, in part because figs
have an association with old people, right, Yeah, what's wrong
with that anyway? The write up for it says an
association with old people similar to prunes, and in part
(23:30):
because they come in different flavors.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's one of the other reasons that the fake Newton's Yes,
not the old people. They are not similar to prunes.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
No.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Consumers surveyed about the fig part of FIG Newton's described
them as two laxative em That is not a term
I knew one would use to describe things. The senior
director in charge of FIG Newton said of the decision,
it was going to be hot for us to advance
the Newton's brand the baggage of the fig.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Wow, yeah, m from baggage. I know.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
From the Snackworks website you can find recipes for Newton's
topped with him and cheese or breeze, or as a
topping on salad.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I don't okay that last one. I don't buy those
first two. I was like, yes, on board, I will
use my cookies as crackers and put stuff on top
of them all the time. That sounds great, but that it.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Was a very I have to say, an appetizing image
next to the recipe.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
But you know, whatever you like. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And one last thing about the formerly fig Newton nineteen
seventies ad campaign featured actor James Harder dressed as a
fig named Big Fig and singing one of the lines
is is it good darn tutin doing the Big Fig Newton?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
The big modernly figs are considered both an excellent crop
for humans and ecosystems in general. There are records of
nearly one three hundred bird and mammal species eating figs,
and new fig growth can spread quickly as those creatures travel,
and you know, deposit the seeds. Yeah, sure, fig trees
(25:26):
grow quickly and attract more animals and birds, which in
turn deposit more species of seeds. So figs can really
help repair deforestation, and their root systems can be cultivated
and used to prevent erosion and landslides during stormy seasons.
They're pretty great.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I don't know what fig Newton talking about. I know,
baggage of the fig. Fig baggage. You'd be so lucky
to have the fig.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Right, come on?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, that's that's a pleasantly up note. Yeah, a way
to end this history section. And it brings us.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Too well, another ad break. But then, but then it
brings us to all that insect stuff we were talking
about earlier. Okay, back in a bit.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Thank you. Okay, So science portion fig wasps big wasp. Yes,
because biologically speaking, figs are fig and fascinating. Oh I'm sorry.
Like I alluded to earlier, a fig as a unit
is not strictly a fruit. It's a it's a fruit
(26:42):
plus flower situation. It's sort of an inside out cluster
of flowers. Each flower bears a seed, and this type
of cluster is known as an inflorescence. Inflorescence. The structure
protects the flowers and the seeds as they mature, but
it also means that pollinating the flowers is really difficult.
(27:03):
Enter the fig wasp. Of course, Figs of all kinds
co evolved with specific species of wasps that pollinate a
fig this inside out flower cluster by crawling into one.
What these fig wasps tend to be about about one
point five millimeters aka zero point zero six inches in length.
(27:25):
They're just tiny little baby buddies.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Why nature, uh you know why?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
This has led to a sort of urban myth or
the rural myth myth in general, that figs contain wasps
and that the crunchy bits inside of figs are wasp bits.
They're not.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
First off, many commercially produced figs these days are cultivars,
that's human produced varieties of trees whose figs can either
ripen without pollination or can be prompted to ripen by
spraying them with like figgy hormones.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Figgy hormones. That's got to be a DJ name somewhere,
I hope.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
If not, really, if not, one of y'all get on
it please. But even figs that pollinate to the old
fashioned way don't contain wasps. I will explain and note
there's a few ways that fig wasps can reproduce via
fig fruits. This one is the one that we talk
about when we talk about the figs that are generally
eaten by humans generally mm hmm okay. So figs are
(28:32):
chamber to protect seeds that we chamber, as it turns out,
is also great protection for a lady wasp looking to
lay her eggs okay, or rather inedible male figs are
These are called capra figs to distinguish them from female figs,
which are the kind we eat and which have too
much stuff in them for wasps to lay eggs inside. Okay,
(28:56):
but male capra figs are perfect. So a lady wasp
spin buzzing around using whatever the wasp equivalent of tinder
is and she's ready to lay some eggs.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
She finds a suitable fig and crawls in via a
tiny hole at the round base of the fig. It's
called the eye or the ostile, and it's a tight fit.
She probably loses her legs and wings in the process.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
She's moving in.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
This will be her final resting post.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Okay. It's her home and coughin.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Final resting fig. Yeah, but if it is indeed a
capra fig, she gets to lay her eggs. When they hatch,
the male and female offspring mate with each other.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Uh huh okay, okay, yeah, you know. I mean it
took a minute for that to set in.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
But now, okay, it's insects, it's not incest.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
If it's bugs. It's so close though, that's one letter almost.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
When we did a video about this on brain Stuff
one time, I threw in like a casual joke, like
they're kind of all Targarians, It's fine, And then I
got so many comments that were correcting me seeing that
own it to the Lanisters who have an ancestual relationship
on Game of Thrones, But actually the Targerians are the
ones with a history of incest, and Jamie cercy A
wish that they were burn.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
To all you YouTube commenters years ago.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Revenge is best served, Cole and Lauren has just served
it up for.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You, really really cold, and I guess it was sort
of served. Thank you for thank you for coming with
me on that.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Oh I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Lame revenge journey anyway.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
The male.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Wasp babies are born wingless and sometimes blind. Their only
job in life is to mate and then chew a
path out of the fig for the females, for future females,
for their sisters. Oh that they've made it with.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh yes, okay, oh yes, yeah, how good, I forget.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Them right right. The females then crawl to freedom, passively
collecting pollen from the inside of the male fig along
the way, and the cycle continues. The circle of fig.
It's the circle of fig. It moves some of us,
But that's only half the story. If a lady wasp
enters a potentially edible female fig instead of this male
(31:17):
capra fig, it doesn't have enough room inside for her
to lay her eggs, and she will die without reproducing.
Oh no, however, it's not in vain. She'll have carried
pollen from her home fig, her fig of birth along
with her, which will pollinate the female fig and allow
it to develop and ripen into a delicious edible fig
for us.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Your death wasn't in vain. How often does this happen
that they go into the wrong fig.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I enough that we get to eat figs.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So quite offig?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah wow, However, even these figs do not contain any
wasp parts by the time you eat them. That is
because the fig produces a compound called phichin that can
break down the wasp's body create food for its growing
flowers and seeds. So figs are kind of cannibals, but
you're not eating wasp parts.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, that is the quote of the episode right there.
I'm gonna think about that next time I see a
fig in the store. You're a cannibal, but there's no
wast parts there.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Some vegans do avoid figs for this reason.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Oh really?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, and fikin, by the way, is also useful to
humans for tenderizing meat, rendering fat, and clarifying solutions like booze. Okay, yeah,
but hold on, it's actually about to get more intense.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
What how can that be?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
The fig wasps that we've been talking about passively pick
up pollen when they exit their birth fig, but other
fig wasps actively collect pollen and have these specialized pouches
on their bodies for that purpose. And research done by
Cornell and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute indicates that in
the case of these active pollen collecting wasps, fig trees
(33:04):
help evolutions select for wasps that actually do the job.
Like if a wasp fails to deliver pollen to a fig,
the tree will drop the fig early and the wasp's
eggs will die before they can hatch.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Whoa, that's brutal.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah. Trees that meanwhile have co evolved with passive pollinating
wasps almost never abort their fruit.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
But they do trick lady wasps into entering female figs
and thus pollinating them and also dying without laying their
eggs by having their female figs mimic the scent of
male figs like dang fig trees. That is harsh, that's cold,
I know, oh man, wasps. There's really no evolutionary pressure though,
(33:49):
for wasps to avoid being tricked like this, because they're
so inbread. You know, any given lady wasps jeans will
live on through her sisters.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
So the cycle of fig indeed, Wow, it's.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
A strange story. It is, and it might all sound
like a really gross or at the very least like
super metal, but it's also just a very cool example
of mutualism in nature, in which two species equally benefit
from their relationship. Researchers think that figs and fig wasps
have been working like this together for sixty five million years,
(34:30):
which is a really long time to perfect this process.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, okay, I have so many ideas. I want to
see the cover photoshop of Jurassic Part and it's like
a fig you know, where the red thing is on
the cover, and then a wasp is the t rex.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Work. It's sixty five million years in the making. And
then I want.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
To have like a subplot where come with me on
this journey, you guys, okay, okay, okay. I want the
figs so in a family treet with fig loss they're
a big involved and if so on the passport when
you say fig of origin, because fig Wasp would have
passports in this story that I'm creating, clearly.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
How would we differentiate between the different figs.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Oh, it's a whole tiny Wasp universe out there just
waiting to be populated.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I know.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
There's so much to be written and created and to discover,
and it's all thanks to figs and fig wasp.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
They really work together to make something beautiful.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
They do.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
I hope that for at least some of you, you
had no idea that we were going to be talking
about Wasp in this, I don't know how common it
is around our office. It's like common knowledge because we
did you did that episode, yeah or brain stuff a
while ago.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, and Robert lam had written an article about it
right before that.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
So yeah, but I don't know how common it is.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Outside of it. I had never heard this myth that
figs contain wasps. Apparently it's a relatively common like like
you you're eating a fig, don't you know that they
have wasps in them? Like like like playground kind of
taunt whoa in some places.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
My playground is very different than the taunting game. But uh,
I mean, if it's enough where I I certainly had
never heard of it until you mentioned it. But if
it is enough for some vegans avoid figs, well just
do a little survey.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Listeners.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
You should let us know if this was a surprise
to you, you've known it for years, and that brings
us to the end of this classic episode. We hope
that you enjoyed Maybe it was your first time, maybe
it was your second, who knows how many times you've
listened to it.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
And of course, if you have ways that I can
incorporate figs into my life more.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Well, I would love to hear them.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Send them along, Sure.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Send them along.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You can email us at hello atsaverpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Saverr is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you
can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(37:30):
for listening, and we hope that lots of more good
things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm more.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In Vogelbaum, and today we have a classic episode for
you about figs.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Yes, yes, any recent figs were on your mind.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It was just in the episode rotation. I guess I
was looking for a fruit and or vegetable or a
protein at the time when I was planning this out,
and so I was kind of just looking through the
list and figs seemed like a great episode, and I
gave it a listen, and I was like, that was
a great episode. We got to talk a lot about
(00:43):
fig wasps, which is one of my favorite subjects.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh yeah, I remember that was one of the first
things I remember you talking about when we were mentioning,
like maybe we should do this food.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Show and big Wasp came up and I was like, yes,
like nature is really weird, let's talk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I have no news updates about figs to share with anyone,
although I think this was one of the foods that
you weren't sure if you had ever had a fresh
fig when we recorded this. Have you since then? Since
March of twenty eighteen, Annie achieved a fig.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
This sounds like such a like I'm in the hot seat,
I'm in the gotcha have you I have? Oh yeah, yes,
I believe I mentioned in this episode. I have a
friend who loves figs. She came through.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, oh great, fairly recently.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
We went well, fairly recently. Time is so relative now
like a year ago. Okay, it's fairly recent.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
We went on a trip and she had she brought
fresh figs. Oh it was really good. I really liked it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh no, they're lovely, right man, I think, like I
think I basically missed fig season this past year. So
I'm gonna have to pay attention. I'm gonna have to
pay more tension this year and get them on. They're fresh,
because oh they're so good. They're just so nice. It
goes so nice, so well with just like with like
a nice cheese or just pigs.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and they pack a lot, They pack a lot flavor.
They do in a small package.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
M mmmm. Well, here's my update.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Excellent, no good, good update, thanks.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
But I suppose we should get into this classic episode.
So let's let pass Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello,
and a kind of food stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I'm Annie reach and I'm Lauren vocal Bam and today
we're talking about figs.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
And Lauren is very excited to talk about figs.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, mostly because of insects. Yes, but we'll get to
that later.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's kind of a horror. It reminds me of Alien
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it's definitely it gets real weird. I hope you're
looking forward to it as much as I am.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
But first, figs, Yeah, what are they?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
They're both the fruit and the flower of a tree,
like a small tree or large shrub in the Ficus genus.
If you've never seen one, A fig is maybe the
size of like a pingpong ball, but tear drop shaped.
They have a thin, edible skin that may be yellowish
green or purplish, purple or brown or even black, encasing
a pale, pulpy lining, and many many wee orangish or
(03:39):
reddish florrets and yellow seeds. Every fig that you eat
contains dozens or even thousands of flowers and seeds. Figs
taste very sweet and a little bit like green grassy,
and have this interesting soft, sort of silky, sort of
crunchy texture from all of those florets and seeds.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Hmm. I'm to say, I don't have much experience with figs.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
No.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
No, I've probably had like maybe four in my lifetime,
fresh dried, both fresh fresh figs and then fig jam huh.
But I have a friend who is a fiend for figs.
She'll ask me if she's coming up with should I
bring figs? And I always say yes, if you want them.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, it's one of those scarcity things because now they
are only only good for like a very brief time
period and they don't ship well. So right, the fresh
ones are hard to get a hold of. The dried
ones are kind of everywhere.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'll have to keep an eye out for them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And there are hundreds of types of figs aside from
the common fig Ficus karica. And for added fig confusion,
when a type of fig is introduced or discovered in
a new country, a lot of times they give it
a different name, meaning one fig could go by several
different titles depending on where you are.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
They're related to Indian banyan trees and Indian rubber trees,
are both also in the genus the latter. Ficus benjamina
is a producer of natural latex rubber or rubber latex
rather as a sort of sap and fig trees and
fig fruits also contain latex, which is useful for many things,
but can also be an irritant. If you've ever felt
(05:16):
like a little bit of itch or burn on on
your mouth or lips while you're eating a fig, that's
what's up.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Figs are native to a stretch of land that spans
from Turkey to northern India, but you can find them
growing in a majority of the Mediterranean countries as well.
They also grow anywhere with a climate that's on par
with the Mediterranean, like Chile, Australia, South Africa, and parts
of the US. In South Africa's Vonderboom Nature Reserve, there's
(05:42):
a large grove of one thousand plus year old parent
daughter fig trees encompassing a fifty meter or one hundred
and sixty four feet area. Surrounding the mother fig are
three layers of daughter trees, a total of thirteen trunks.
The branches of the doughter trees, with time of sag
to the ground and form roots for new trees. Oh wow, yeah,
(06:03):
and attached around the mother tree. It's really beautiful and
quite huge. It looks like something out of the Lion King.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh, look it up if you're interested.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
The name fig derives from the Latin word ficus and
the Hebrew word feg. It most likely was first used
when the Romans invaded England, as that was the first
time the English would have seen fig trees. It was
widely adopted for general commercial use by twelve fifty CE.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
There are also a number of figurative terms around the fig.
There's a Greco Roman and or Shakespearean English use of
the word fig as vulgar slang for the word vulva oh,
apparently from the look of a ripe fig that's been
split open. And there's also an accompanying gesture which still
(06:51):
carries a slightly vulgar connotation, wherein you put your your
thumb tip either between your two middle fingers when you're
making a fist oh no, or the tip of your
thumb between your teeth, or like up against your your
upper teeth. This totally happens in Romeo and Juliet. In
the opening sequence, one of the capulets mocks some of
(07:12):
the Montagues by biting his thumb at them, Sir yeah man, rough.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Every time I find out about some of these I've
rapidly brushed through times in my life. I've probably done
it and offended someone or either just been the source
of laughter.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's probably more it, I don't think anyway. There's also
a sense of the word fig as in a full fig,
as in a full state of dress or preparedness, perhaps
either from the abbreviation fig from figure used in illustration
plates and old books, or from Adam and Eves fig.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Leaves could be either, who knows.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
As far as nutrition goes, figs have a high fiber
and calcium content and decent amounts of potassium, iron, polyphenols,
and flavonoids, so.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They're nutritious ish. They also contain a lot of sugar,
about five times as much sugar as fiber.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yes, they have.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Been and still are used medicinally as well, especially as
a laxative, are a diuretic, and as a care for boils.
Oh As of two thousand and five, Turkey produced the
most figs, with Egypt holding the second spot.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Since figs both don't keep.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Very long, as Lauren mentioned, after you pick them and
they don't do so great and they're being transported, a
lot of the commercial fig products involves some type of
processing like dried figs or jam. Worldwide production is about
a million metric tons per year, and the fig is
such a common food in the Mediterranean that has earned
the title the poor man's food. I hear in England
(08:46):
there's a saying I don't give a fig. Please write
in to confirm people from England listening.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
In the United States, California grows about ninety eight percent
of our figs as of twenty twelve, About ninety four
percent of those were grown again to be dried or
otherwise processed.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Figs can be picked and packed fresh in the field
by hand or left to dry on their trees, and
then treated and sometimes pressed to produce dried figs and
then later processed into other stuff. It takes about four
pounds of fresh figs to produce one pound.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Of dried Okay, I got a question for you before
we continue. Yeah, have you had a lot of dried
figs in your day?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I guess I have. Yeah. I was kind of big
on them as a snack for a while there. I was.
I was doing a lot of like trail mix kind
of things because it was only the only way that
I could responsibly get myself to eat like not potato chips.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Okay, okay, so maybe I'm just trying to figure out
as someone who has very little experience.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Are they mostly eaten just a laon or in trail
mixes and salads like dried figs specifically?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, yeah, I think that they're they're often because they're
they're pretty large. They're again like about the size a
ping pong baller, maybe a little bit smaller, so are
they can be some of them are a little bit tinier,
like like a like a large fresh grape guys. So
so they're they're frequently cut into pieces or or chopped
up and then maybe put into baked goods or used
(10:16):
as a as a sugar substitute in jam form okay
or yeah, yeah, fresh figs definitely are used a lot.
My favorite way to eat fresh figs is on pizza.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Oh hey, yeah, it's ludicrously delicious, but but yeah, they're
They're really good with a with like a sprinkle of balsamic,
on top of a salad or just.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Just about any way you want to eat them. Okay,
I'm a big fig fan is as well.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Okay, okay, awesome, I just wanted to, you know, pick
your brain.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
That's Annie's question of.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
The episode for Lauren. All right, please continue. Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The leaves, aside from adorning, Adam and Eve, can be
used for cattle feed or processed by the perfume industry
to cate like a woody mossy smelling absolute.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Okay, is that like for men?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
This is another question for anyone. I suppose I'm just wondering,
you know, depends on what you want to smell like.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Okay, Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And the latex from fig plants can be used in
place of rennett to coagulate milk and create cheeses.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wow. Yeah, that's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
As of twenty fifteen, the global fig export market was
valued around four hundred and twenty nine million dollars, though
that's probably only a fraction of the value of the
total production market of figs, as many figs are consumed domestically. Peru,
for example, only exports some three percent of its fig production,
and it's about the largest producer in South America. And
(11:49):
he looked down as though she would find they'd like
like the answers to why Peru does this in our notes.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Alas, I didn't know. However, there is an anonymous pumpkin.
In our outline, there is if.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
You're the anonymous pumpkin, let our know, let us know, Yes,
please do. There's also here an ad break, after which
we will continue into the history, the long, long history
of this amazing fruit slash flower.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Thank you. So our pre human ancestors probably eight wild figs.
Researchers think this because chimpanzees in some areas make figs
essentially their entire diet for a couple months out of
the year.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh really yeah, a diet of figs. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
In either case, figs are one of the first fruits
primitive humans cultivated. Nine fossilized figs found in the Jordan
Valley near Jericho suggest cultivation may go as far back
as nine four hundred BCEO. If this is true, it
makes figs one of the first, if not the very first,
known case of agriculture. And some historians, as we've sort
(13:10):
of hinted at and mentioned in other episodes, think that
instead of the apple or the banana, as we said
in Banana episode, the fig was the fruit.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Used to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ah. Yeah,
and at the very least fig leaves were used as
their covering of choice, so it would make sense this
use of fig leaves in the place of loin cloths
pops up in several famous and not so famous artworks
throughout history. Sometimes these fig.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Leaf coverings were added after the piece was finished to
appease the delicate sensibilities of art collectors. Heaven forbid, I
see anything that I cannot handle.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
These fig leaves.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Over fig leaf blinders.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yes, perfect, yes, outside of loin cough substitutes. The Bible
references the fig a handful of times. One quote each
man under his own vine and fig tree has since
been used to mean peace and prosperity. One fig, the
picus religiosa, or the sacred fig, holds religious significance in Buddhism, Hinduism,
(14:17):
and Jainism. Buddhist legend goes that Siddharta Gautama was sitting
under a sacred fig tree a bo or Bodhi tree
when he was enlightened.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Ancient Egyptian priests may have eaten figs at their consecration ceremonies.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
In religions around the world, figs do symbolize peace, prosperity,
and fertility. The prophet Mohammad allegedly named the fig as
the fruit he hoped most to find in Paradise. Oh yeah,
big fan too. Figs probably originated in the northern part
of Asia. Minor records of figs used for food purposes
(14:51):
on ancient Sumerian tablets go back to twenty five hundred BCE.
From there they spread throughout the Mediterranean with the Romans
and the Greeks. The diet of ancient Romans included a
decent amount of figs.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Are old. While Plenty wrote about twenty nine varieties.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
He had one hundred and eleven observations on figs.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
In fact, I kind of want to read them, honestly,
one hundred and eleven. That's quite impressive. According to him,
figs were a food staple for slaves in their place
of origin. He also wrote about its potential health benefits.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Including this fruit invigorates the young and improves the health
of the aged and retards the formation of wrinkles, and
also mixed with axle grease. Fig milk removes wartz axle grease.
Not sure I A mystery of history.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
In the Greek myth of Romulus and Remus, the brothers
twins were nursed by the she wolf under a fig tree,
and to convince the Roman Senate to go to war
for the third time with Carthage around one hundred and
fifty BCE, Cato the Elder brought to the debate a
handful of figs from Carthage as an.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Example of how close the threat was.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
And it worked on two levels, because he also accused
the senators of being feminine, like the insides.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Of a fig.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Ah, I know, harsh, diss very.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I mean, come on, Kato, hate it when people call
me feminine? Yeah, it's the worst, right.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Ancient Greece enjoyed quite a bit of figs as well,
and the Spartans included it as an item at their
public tables and public tables if you're like me and
we're like who they were meals that were open to
everyone in certain groups. So I imagine like sorority dinners or
something is modern equivalent. It was another food that ancient
(16:45):
Greek olympians ate to improve performance. Figs even play a
role in Greek myth. The story goes that Apollo instructed
a crow to fetch him some water, but the crow
saw a fig tree and could not resist. Waiting around
in the branches for some sweets fruit to ripen. To
cover his tardiness and escape punishment, the crow scoops up
a snake along with some water from the stream and
(17:07):
blames the snake for his lateness. Apollo is not fooled, however,
for he is a god, and he hurls the snake,
the crow and the goblet. I guess the crow had
to collect water into the sky, forming the constellation's hydra,
corvus and crater.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Oh yeah, I have little stories like that. Yeah. Bacchus
from Latin myth believed the fig was sacred and used
it ceremonially. Oh and here's another fun I love this. Yeah. Yeah.
In Greece, figs were known as sykes. I'm gonna get
six would make more sense.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yes, there we go.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Sorry, it looks like sykes, but it is probably pronounced
six after ancient Greek city Sicion that was known for
its figs. Big fans of figs, the Athenians earned the
nickname sickle, which translated to fig revealers, and the word
came to mean slanderer in ancient Greek. Historians think this
(18:07):
is because of the tax imposed on figs brought to
markets by Greek farmers. Some farmers would try to skirt
the tax, and the farmers that snitched were called fig revealers.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Yeah, or it could come.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
From another meaning of the word fig for a gesture
or sign of contempt what Lauren was talking about earlier.
It wasn't until English speakers adopted the word in the
sixteenth century that took on its current meaning of flat
or succah.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Dried figs were plentiful enough to sometimes replace bread in
the ancient Mediterranean. The Greeks also made fig wine and
would fatten geese on figs and then eat their livers
as a delicacy. Before sugar happened, figs were a common
way to sweeten and help preserve foods.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
M written mention of figs and China traspect to the
eighth century CE.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
The writer describes them as fruits without blossoms. They may
go back to one hundred and twenty seven CE, when
the Emperor put together an expedition to Central Asia, but
there is no definitive proof of that.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Figs were for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Growing in China by the fourteenth century CE, but they
may not have been the common fig we know in
the fifteen twenties, the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries to the
colonies and the New World began introducing fig trees in
the Caribbean and then later along the East coast of
North America. As mentioned, the top figs probably came to
(19:31):
England with the invading Romans, but the trees.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Died out after the Romans left.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
They were reintroduced during the rule the Rule of Henry
the Eighth and records from fifteen forty eight described fig
trees being planted in England. A bit later in fifteen
ninety seven, descriptions say, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here
that fig trees never mature unless they are planted. They're
a hot wall. They're a hot wall, a hot wall. Okay,
(19:56):
I'm going to guess there's some temperature thing happening there,
sure U.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Spanish Franciscan missionaries brought fig trees to the West coast
of America beginning in seventeen sixty nine. This variety would
develop into the mission fig the mission fig missionaries Mission figs.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
In the eighteen eighties, there was another variety introduced to
California that had a little bit more trouble. The Smyrna
fig for a decade. There were all of these cuttings
and seeds planted, but their fruit fell off the trees
without maturing. It was almost an international scandal. Folks were
all going, those Smartin's fooled us with lousy stocks, those Smirnins,
We should abandon this fig folly, not fig folly that
(20:37):
a writer literally wrote fig lovely in an article from
the time. But the farmers eventually worked it out, with
the particular perseverance and no little snark from one George c.
Roading of Fresno, who was in his family's fruit business.
There it would take ten years, multiple trips to Turkey,
painstaking experiments with hand pollination, and help from entomolaists before
(21:00):
they managed to get a good crop. And yes, entomologists.
They had to import not just the fig plants, but
the Blastophaga grosorum, a type of fig wasp, to pollinate
those figs. Ooh again with the insects. More on that
just a little bit later. Sufficed to say that it worked,
and the California fig industry was booming by the end
(21:22):
of the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And then in eighteen ninety one, the fig Newton became
commercially available after cookie maker Charles M. Roser sold the
recipe to Nabisco, which at the time was called Kentucky
Biscuit Works.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
If you don't know what these are, they.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Are short, rectangular soft cookies filled with fig jam I
kind of associate them with sad sadness. No no, no, no,
just like you're you're hoping for something better and side
of school lunch and.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And it's just a fake Newton.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, they're fine, they're fine.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I went through a big fag Newton fan. I still
have a kind of nostalgia for them.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Oh, I did read a lot of people have a
nostalgia for them. The mass productions of these fig Newtons
was made possible with the invention of a machine that
operated sort of like having two funnels, one inside the other,
and through the bigger funnel went the dough and the
smaller funnel went the filling into one long cookie that
(22:26):
was cut into bite sized pieces.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh okay, yeah, a series of tubes, Yes, a series
of tubes.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
That's what the Internet is. That's what I hear.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
First, the cookies were simply called Newton's. Allegedly, the machine's inventor,
James Henry Mitchell named the machine after physicist Isaac Newton,
but in actuality they were named after Newton, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
The fig part of the name was added a bit
later in response to the generally positive reaction to the
filling Yeah Newtons a FIG Jamboree.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Jeteen fifty one ad called it.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
They were called cakes until a nineteen eighties rebrand advertised
them as chewy cookies.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
In a bit of a funny twist.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
The fig was dropped in twenty twelve, so they once
again are simply called Newton's Yeah, in part because figs
have an association with old people, right, Yeah, what's wrong
with that anyway? The write up for it says an
association with old people similar to prunes, and in part
(23:30):
because they come in different flavors.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's one of the other reasons that the fake Newton's Yes,
not the old people. They are not similar to prunes.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
No.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Consumers surveyed about the fig part of FIG Newton's described
them as two laxative em That is not a term
I knew one would use to describe things. The senior
director in charge of FIG Newton said of the decision,
it was going to be hot for us to advance
the Newton's brand the baggage of the fig.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Wow, yeah, m from baggage. I know.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
From the Snackworks website you can find recipes for Newton's
topped with him and cheese or breeze, or as a
topping on salad.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I don't okay that last one. I don't buy those
first two. I was like, yes, on board, I will
use my cookies as crackers and put stuff on top
of them all the time. That sounds great, but that it.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Was a very I have to say, an appetizing image
next to the recipe.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
But you know, whatever you like. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And one last thing about the formerly fig Newton nineteen
seventies ad campaign featured actor James Harder dressed as a
fig named Big Fig and singing one of the lines
is is it good darn tutin doing the Big Fig Newton?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
The big modernly figs are considered both an excellent crop
for humans and ecosystems in general. There are records of
nearly one three hundred bird and mammal species eating figs,
and new fig growth can spread quickly as those creatures travel,
and you know, deposit the seeds. Yeah, sure, fig trees
(25:26):
grow quickly and attract more animals and birds, which in
turn deposit more species of seeds. So figs can really
help repair deforestation, and their root systems can be cultivated
and used to prevent erosion and landslides during stormy seasons.
They're pretty great.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I don't know what fig Newton talking about. I know,
baggage of the fig. Fig baggage. You'd be so lucky
to have the fig.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Right, come on?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, that's that's a pleasantly up note. Yeah, a way
to end this history section. And it brings us.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Too well, another ad break. But then, but then it
brings us to all that insect stuff we were talking
about earlier. Okay, back in a bit.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Thank you. Okay, So science portion fig wasps big wasp. Yes,
because biologically speaking, figs are fig and fascinating. Oh I'm sorry.
Like I alluded to earlier, a fig as a unit
is not strictly a fruit. It's a it's a fruit
(26:42):
plus flower situation. It's sort of an inside out cluster
of flowers. Each flower bears a seed, and this type
of cluster is known as an inflorescence. Inflorescence. The structure
protects the flowers and the seeds as they mature, but
it also means that pollinating the flowers is really difficult.
(27:03):
Enter the fig wasp. Of course, Figs of all kinds
co evolved with specific species of wasps that pollinate a
fig this inside out flower cluster by crawling into one.
What these fig wasps tend to be about about one
point five millimeters aka zero point zero six inches in length.
(27:25):
They're just tiny little baby buddies.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Why nature, uh you know why?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
This has led to a sort of urban myth or
the rural myth myth in general, that figs contain wasps
and that the crunchy bits inside of figs are wasp bits.
They're not.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
First off, many commercially produced figs these days are cultivars,
that's human produced varieties of trees whose figs can either
ripen without pollination or can be prompted to ripen by
spraying them with like figgy hormones.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Figgy hormones. That's got to be a DJ name somewhere,
I hope.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
If not, really, if not, one of y'all get on
it please. But even figs that pollinate to the old
fashioned way don't contain wasps. I will explain and note
there's a few ways that fig wasps can reproduce via
fig fruits. This one is the one that we talk
about when we talk about the figs that are generally
eaten by humans generally mm hmm okay. So figs are
(28:32):
chamber to protect seeds that we chamber, as it turns out,
is also great protection for a lady wasp looking to
lay her eggs okay, or rather inedible male figs are
These are called capra figs to distinguish them from female figs,
which are the kind we eat and which have too
much stuff in them for wasps to lay eggs inside. Okay,
(28:56):
but male capra figs are perfect. So a lady wasp
spin buzzing around using whatever the wasp equivalent of tinder
is and she's ready to lay some eggs.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
She finds a suitable fig and crawls in via a
tiny hole at the round base of the fig. It's
called the eye or the ostile, and it's a tight fit.
She probably loses her legs and wings in the process.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
She's moving in.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
This will be her final resting post.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Okay. It's her home and coughin.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Final resting fig. Yeah, but if it is indeed a
capra fig, she gets to lay her eggs. When they hatch,
the male and female offspring mate with each other.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Uh huh okay, okay, yeah, you know. I mean it
took a minute for that to set in.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
But now, okay, it's insects, it's not incest.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
If it's bugs. It's so close though, that's one letter almost.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
When we did a video about this on brain Stuff
one time, I threw in like a casual joke, like
they're kind of all Targarians, It's fine, And then I
got so many comments that were correcting me seeing that
own it to the Lanisters who have an ancestual relationship
on Game of Thrones, But actually the Targerians are the
ones with a history of incest, and Jamie cercy A
wish that they were burn.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
To all you YouTube commenters years ago.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Revenge is best served, Cole and Lauren has just served
it up for.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You, really really cold, and I guess it was sort
of served. Thank you for thank you for coming with
me on that.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Oh I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Lame revenge journey anyway.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
The male.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Wasp babies are born wingless and sometimes blind. Their only
job in life is to mate and then chew a
path out of the fig for the females, for future females,
for their sisters. Oh that they've made it with.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh yes, okay, oh yes, yeah, how good, I forget.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Them right right. The females then crawl to freedom, passively
collecting pollen from the inside of the male fig along
the way, and the cycle continues. The circle of fig.
It's the circle of fig. It moves some of us,
But that's only half the story. If a lady wasp
enters a potentially edible female fig instead of this male
(31:17):
capra fig, it doesn't have enough room inside for her
to lay her eggs, and she will die without reproducing.
Oh no, however, it's not in vain. She'll have carried
pollen from her home fig, her fig of birth along
with her, which will pollinate the female fig and allow
it to develop and ripen into a delicious edible fig
for us.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Your death wasn't in vain. How often does this happen
that they go into the wrong fig.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I enough that we get to eat figs.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So quite offig?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah wow, However, even these figs do not contain any
wasp parts by the time you eat them. That is
because the fig produces a compound called phichin that can
break down the wasp's body create food for its growing
flowers and seeds. So figs are kind of cannibals, but
you're not eating wasp parts.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, that is the quote of the episode right there.
I'm gonna think about that next time I see a
fig in the store. You're a cannibal, but there's no
wast parts there.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Some vegans do avoid figs for this reason.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Oh really?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Yeah, and fikin, by the way, is also useful to
humans for tenderizing meat, rendering fat, and clarifying solutions like booze. Okay, yeah,
but hold on, it's actually about to get more intense.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
What how can that be?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
The fig wasps that we've been talking about passively pick
up pollen when they exit their birth fig, but other
fig wasps actively collect pollen and have these specialized pouches
on their bodies for that purpose. And research done by
Cornell and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute indicates that in
the case of these active pollen collecting wasps, fig trees
(33:04):
help evolutions select for wasps that actually do the job.
Like if a wasp fails to deliver pollen to a fig,
the tree will drop the fig early and the wasp's
eggs will die before they can hatch.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Whoa, that's brutal.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah. Trees that meanwhile have co evolved with passive pollinating
wasps almost never abort their fruit.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
But they do trick lady wasps into entering female figs
and thus pollinating them and also dying without laying their
eggs by having their female figs mimic the scent of
male figs like dang fig trees. That is harsh, that's cold,
I know, oh man, wasps. There's really no evolutionary pressure though,
(33:49):
for wasps to avoid being tricked like this, because they're
so inbread. You know, any given lady wasps jeans will
live on through her sisters.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
So the cycle of fig indeed, Wow, it's.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
A strange story. It is, and it might all sound
like a really gross or at the very least like
super metal, but it's also just a very cool example
of mutualism in nature, in which two species equally benefit
from their relationship. Researchers think that figs and fig wasps
have been working like this together for sixty five million years,
(34:30):
which is a really long time to perfect this process.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, okay, I have so many ideas. I want to
see the cover photoshop of Jurassic Part and it's like
a fig you know, where the red thing is on
the cover, and then a wasp is the t rex.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Work. It's sixty five million years in the making. And
then I want.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
To have like a subplot where come with me on
this journey, you guys, okay, okay, okay. I want the
figs so in a family treet with fig loss they're
a big involved and if so on the passport when
you say fig of origin, because fig Wasp would have
passports in this story that I'm creating, clearly.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
How would we differentiate between the different figs.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Oh, it's a whole tiny Wasp universe out there just
waiting to be populated.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I know.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
There's so much to be written and created and to discover,
and it's all thanks to figs and fig wasp.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
They really work together to make something beautiful.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
They do.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
I hope that for at least some of you, you
had no idea that we were going to be talking
about Wasp in this, I don't know how common it
is around our office. It's like common knowledge because we
did you did that episode, yeah or brain stuff a
while ago.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, and Robert lam had written an article about it
right before that.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
So yeah, but I don't know how common it is.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Outside of it. I had never heard this myth that
figs contain wasps. Apparently it's a relatively common like like
you you're eating a fig, don't you know that they
have wasps in them? Like like like playground kind of
taunt whoa in some places.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
My playground is very different than the taunting game. But uh,
I mean, if it's enough where I I certainly had
never heard of it until you mentioned it. But if
it is enough for some vegans avoid figs, well just
do a little survey.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Listeners.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
You should let us know if this was a surprise
to you, you've known it for years, and that brings
us to the end of this classic episode. We hope
that you enjoyed Maybe it was your first time, maybe
it was your second, who knows how many times you've
listened to it.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
And of course, if you have ways that I can
incorporate figs into my life more.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Well, I would love to hear them.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Send them along, Sure.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Send them along.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You can email us at hello atsaverpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Saverr is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you
can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(37:30):
for listening, and we hope that lots of more good
things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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