Small and mighty from the Empire of the Sun

They’ re small, they’ re almost black – and they’ re delicious. Our baby figs. In Fenazar, Spain, we grow this special variety of figs to test how it performs. Wil Lemmer, Varieties Manager at SanLucar is on fire for the small fruits. »These figs are the best I have ever eaten. They’re the essence of a fig – sweet, juicy and flavorful.« Figs usually grow on the ground. The reason we’ re testing them in pots has to do with climate change. In Spain, too, it’s becoming drier and drier and our farm may have to make do with less rain in the future.

Wil and his team are therefore looking for new varieties that use less water but are also delicious. When you raise them in pots, you can measure exactly how much water they need, and this is how we learn for the future. Fig trees are tough plants – but the fruits themselves are very sensitive. The skin of figs often gets scars from the strong wind.

This doesn’t harm the taste, but we would like to harvest perfect fruit for our customers and for as long as possible. That is why we conduct these trials at other locations such as Tunisia or in Huelva. If all locations deliver positive results, we hope to be able to harvest for four to five months. All this takes time. »Only after the third year can we say whether our trials are really successful,« says Wil. »The first two years were very promising. It looks quite good and it tastes the quite good, too.«