Greek Isles (Fig)

[alanmercieca]

'Greek Isles' (Fig)

It's an unknown fig cultivar which produces firm purple figs, with an amber flesh, they are sweet, yet not overly sweet, they taste great, a taste that resembles pears, accompanied by a berry-like flavor, top quality in flavor and in texture! It's main crop figs are medium in size, and it's breba crop figs are extra large in size, the breba figs can reach the size of tennis balls, sometimes even bigger than that. The weight of the breba crop figs they range from 175 grams to 210 grams. The breba figs taste very similar to the figs of the main crop.

In a warm enough climate, on a warm enough year, the breba figs of this cultivar they begin ripening at the beginning of June.

In South Carolina hardiness zone 8a this cultivar is a reliable prolific producer of extra large breba figs, and in that climate 'Greek Isles' has never had any die-back in the ground whatsoever due to late freezes.

Appearance wise it's figs do resemble a few other cultivars, although taste wise it's different than them.

The skin of it's figs is thin, yet a little chewy, there is no seed crunch.

The 'Greek Isles' cultivar, it typically has leaves that are 3-lobed, and 5-lobed, and it's a vigorous grower as well.

'Greek Isles' is named after a Greek eatery of the same name that opened it's doors in 2004, an eatery that was once on the South end of Charlotte, NC, the restaurant was shut down in 2015 due to the lease doubling, the shut down was intended to be just temporary, eventually they planned to move to 'uptown Charlotte'. Although the Photopoulos family had/has a restaurant named 'French Quarter' to run, a restaurant that the family has owned since 1986. Clearly life got in the way of the family reopening the 'Greek Isles' restaurant. Just the same their restaurant 'French Quarter' has a few Greek items on the menu.

The original fig tree was brought from Greece by one of the then owners of the 'Greek Isles' restaurant, 'George Photopoulos' (along with an olive tree that he kept in a heated pot at the entrance of the restaurant). The tree overhung the sidewalk, and so every now and then, people would grab figs from the passenger side of their cars. The 'Greek Isles' fig tree was originally planted right outside the 'Greek Isles' restaurant in about 2008, or 2009.

That original fig tree was destroyed since a Mexican restaurant was supposed to take it's place, a Mexican restaurant named 'Hot Taco', did take the place of the 'Greek Isles' restaurant. 'Hot Taco' shut down permanently June 2023. A Colombian restaurant named 'Muraya' then took the place of 'Hot Taco' in September of 2023.

Dragos of South Carolina, he rescued this cultivar and it's being distributed within the fig community. The original tree is still visible on google maps.

George's dad 'Panos Photopoulos' was the original owner, and is now the former owner of the restaurant. 'Panos Photopoulos' passed away on 'July 6, 2020', in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the age of 77 years old. This was about 5 years after the 'Greek Isles' restaurant had shut down.

[LoPresti]

Great story and share of the history. Like to see a picture and flavor profile of the Greek isles fig.

[alanmercieca]

Great story and share of the history. Like to see a picture and flavor profile of the Greek isles fig.

I have made a major update about 'Greek Isles', see above.

Also the following are some photos, and a video of the fruit that I have found online. The one in the video is not properly ripe.

01) https://figfanatic.com/threads/greek-isles.1913/
02) https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home ... -2016-main

[alanmercieca]

Another video that I found