Time to remove the fig leaf for the big reveal, and to mail a beautiful book to the winner of the fig guessing game:
We had a range of guesses, from 21 to 125.
There were some very well-reasoned answers:
Kitty P. guessed 81 for each of Estorbo's lives. Ellen guessed 27 because she was Number 27 in Fifth Grade. There were some 66's from John and Ansie because...why? Then some 33 's from Cynthia and Pam in Jhb because 66 must have seemed way too many. Anyes and Camille decided 52....And porrothecat came eerily close when she guessed the first count I made this season: 88. And most others falling inbetween.
However, the house in Arlington has come up trumps, with one member guessing 90 and the other 125. Flwrjane and German Girl performed a crafty flanking move and surrounded the correct number, employing scientific methods of photograph-studying, branch counting, trunk caliper and possible pruning (I never did prune...).
The number of figs on the tree is:
....
105!
That means Flwrjane is the technical winner of the marvelous book, beating her girlfriend by 5 figs. So I hope y'all share. Now send me your address.
Photo: Romulo Yanes for GourmetThank you very much to all of you for playing. I wish I had 39 books to send to all corners of the globe.
Should we do blueberries next?
* Note the use of Miracle Gro potting soil, bottom left photo, when the fig was new. That was then. I'm sorry. I won't do it again.
Way to go Flower Jane and German Girl. Always happy to lose to them!
ReplyDeleteYay! The German will be so pleased. she's driving back from Connecticut today,don't worry, I'll stop her from stopping by to collect her 1/2 the prize.
ReplyDeleteGod, how many figs must there be on our too tall to tell tree?
Address a coming. thank you. xoxo Jane and German Girl
Of course she can stop by :-)
ReplyDeleteUgh. You havea too tall to tell tree. Damn :-( Jealous.
66, as in the number of square feet, another obvious but incorrect answer. 105 figs from a little tree like, wow!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a bounty! My baby fig tree has 4 figs. Last year it only produced 2. I didn't enter because I already have that book... it's fabulous :)
ReplyDeleteIf only I had doubled my number + 1, then...
ReplyDeleteIt's OK maybe next time, I enjoyed playing all the same
Congrats to Flower Jane and German Girl
That's a lot of figs! Delicious!
ReplyDeleteNo! Not blueberries - you keep eating them! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever little tree. Going to order the book on Kalahari.net now! Pam in Joburg
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do?
ReplyDeleteThe tree in my backyard is over 9.5 ft tall and hasn't a fig as of yet.
Lots of beautiful leaves, but not fruite
Can I ask what is wrong with Miracle Gro soil?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to the winner! We shouldn't be surprised at the prodigious bounty of this little tree. Marie has what may be the greenest thumb in all of Brooklyn.
ReplyDeleteKitty
I hear the chirping of crickets... ah the sound of a late comment!
ReplyDeletegood to know that the bs degree has already paid it self off :-)
we will have to celebrate over a fabulous new recipe!
gg
ps : clearly a 'too-tall-to-tell' tree is slightly over rated... congrats on a mother load of figs(and a well played match this afternoon)
Do you have a hard time finding recipes for green figs? We have a green fig tree but all of the recipes I find are for the black figs.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to be eerily close. The 88 just popped into my head!
msdworks - big tree no fruit: Does your tree have six hours plus of sunlight every day? I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteAnnie - that particular Mircal Gro had fertilizer in the soil, and I try to stay away from synthetic fertilizers. Not religiously, because they can have their place, especially in container gardens - but I try.
German girl (I think ) without the French behaving like les babies we would not have won, but happy to take advantage of the tantrums.
porrothe cat - by green do you mean unripe, or ripe green-skin type fig? SAfricans love preserved green figs, where the hard unripe figs are preserved in syrup.