Violet Solliès

[alanmercieca]

Violet Solliès
The locals often call this variety Solliès-Pont. Solliés-Pont is a village in the South of France located in Departement du Var, Solliés-Pont is where most French figs are harvested from. Yet most figs eaten in Solliés-Pont are from farmers markets, or grown at people's homes. They have a huge fig festival in August every year. 'Bourjasotte Noire' is nearly identical to 'Violet Solliès', 'Violet Solliès' has mostly 5 lobed leaves, they are serrated, 'Bourjassote Noire' leaves are serrated also yet they are mostly 3 lobed.

'Violet Solliès' is the 'shiny glossy fig', the sturdier fig that came from a hybridization with a lighter fig that was once in the area that they called 'sauvage', which means wild.

'Violet Solliès' often produces figs the first year in a pot, and often produces the first year if planted in the ground early enough in the year. Skin of it's figs do not crack easily.

It's figs make a great fig jam, and it's one of the best fig varieties in all of France, it produces very unique figs, When a fig of this variety is fully ripe a fig honey drop forms revealing it's full ripeness, at full ripeness it's juicy figs keep firm yet are rather soft in texture unlike figs that are mushy when fully ripe. It has a very complex fruity flavor of Berry, ripe banana, watermelon, honeydew melon, strawberry, other red fruits and so on. It has a perfect fruity sugar balance that is too complex to describe well, by far one of the best tasting figs in the world. there is a perfect balance of acidity and sugar, traditionally 'Violet Solliès' must have a °Brix of 14 or more sugar than that to be sold fresh at normal price, 'Violet Solliès' fruit of lesser standards than the traditional standards is either sold at a lower price fresh like this
photo taken October 12th 2014

or they get sold for use in processed foods. 'Violet Solliès' figs that weigh too little, that are not sweet enough or that look bad, they are lesser than the standards.

It's figs are very attractive looking and are large in size, they are sphere shaped, and sometimes one of them can be hot air balloon like in shape, their skin is violet their veins range from dark purple to black, they are heavy weight compared to many other figs. The seeds are not crunchy, so it's almost like there are no seeds. Fig flavor has been said to resemble the flavor of a Black Madeira fig and a Noire de Caromb fig. It does not have a strong strawberry jam flavor that you'd find in a Col de Dame, yet the plump flesh is the color of strawberry jam.

France has great figs, there is no fig wasps were Violet Solliès traditionally grows, yet it's considered to be one of the best figs in all of France, as well as in all of the world without the aid of the fig wasp. Like in Malta, like in Sicily, like in Greece and so on Solliés-Pont France has a lot of limestone in the soil, unlike those places Solliés-Pont has Bauxite in the soil (a type of Aluminium). Soil in Solliés-Pont is loamy and has no clay, yet in some parts of Europe some of the best figs are produced in soil that is not loamy, that has clay in the soil, and they have no Bauxite so I am not sure how much those things matter for having the best figs, I did learn that clay does help prevent nutrient run off which in the long run means less work. The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone in Solliés-Pont would be 10b if they rated the winter temperatures there. The following photos are taken of the real 'Violet Solliès' variety, and they were taken in the Solliés-Pont area of France.

Here are photos of the figs

photo taken fig season 2011.

Figs are Ready.jpg (71 KiB) Viewed 95 times

photo taken fig season 2011.

photo taken fig season 2011.

Fig platter.jpg (69.43 KiB) Viewed 95 times

Taken August 24th 2016

Photo taken fig season 2011.

Here is a photo of some it's leaves, the square tiles are 12 inches, this photo was taken September 17th 2016

Here is a photo of the tree it's self taken April 16th 2015 shortly after it was pruned that April.

This photo was taken August 24th 2016.

The same fig tree, photo taken fig season 2011.

Wow up to 12 Euros per tree, photo taken October 12th, 2014.

I technically do not have this variety yet, yet there is much confusion out there what it's really like, hopefully this answers everyone's questions, since I know of someone who has a friend with a tree of the real variety, in the right area I was able to get lots of info, and photos some of which are not anywhere else on the internet. I also found some great info online. Thank you Mary for the help!