Growing Figs

There’s nothing like a freshly picked fig, soft and flavourful after ripening on the branch. While fairly easy to grow, figs are a delicate fruit that need care when picking and transporting so you can enjoy their delicious softness in one piece.

- Samantha Allemann

Whether fresh or dried, figs are a sweet snack that conjure up images of the Mediterranean — and it is largely thanks to European and Middle Eastern migrants that Aussies can enjoy this small but mighty fruit.

Figlicious is run by Gebran Azzi, who grows figs in Glenorie, New South Wales. Azzi’s parents came to Australia as refugees, escaping the war in Lebanon. “My father and his brother brought in Lebanese cucumbers and started growing them, then they moved into tomatoes and capsicums,” says Azzi. He worked as a property valuer for a decade but when his parents retired, he decided to make use of the empty greenhouses. “I started researching a crop that wasn’t so labour intensive to grow and I picked figs,” he says. “There’s not much labour involved with figs — it’s just the picking but that’s easy. You prune them once a year and then you let them grow.” With produce from 1500 fig trees, Azzi sells at farmers’ markets and also at his roadside store in the Sydney suburb of Dural over the weekends

Over in the Adelaide Hills, Willa Wauchope is at the helm of Willabrand Figs, another family-run business. Taking over a remnant orchard at Glen Ewin Estate 22 years ago, Wauchope has around 12,000 trees sitting on 30 acres. Willabrand grows five main varieties of fig — Archipal, Deanna, Spanish Desert, Brown Turkey and Black Genoa.