A HISTORY OF ADJECTIVES

"Is it a long-neck fig that's yellow, or a yellow fig that has a long neck?" This is the question once proposed by long-time Figaholic Harvey Correia with regard to the Yellow Long Neck fig. Apparently it was once called Long Neck Yellow, but through an innocuous change of adjective-noun placement, it became the YLN. This fig was, according to fig legend, acquired at the eleventh hour by the late George Emerich just moments prior to the UC Riverside collection being culled, and all of figdom rejoiced.

FIG FLAVOR AND CHARACTERISTICS

The main crop of Yellow Long Neck produces a honey-type fig with green skin. It is a fairly late ripener but appears to be, by all accounts, a very cold-hardy tree. While like most honey figs it has issues in the rain, including spoilage and a loss of flavor, it still does fairly well in most gardens throughout the US. Kremp notes hints of red blush in the pulp, an agave flavor, and its syruppy texture with a good deal of seed crunch. This cultivar does produce a breba, typically in the mid-season, that is "densely brown sugar sweet with a tannic aftertaste" according to blackear on the FigDatabase. He also notes that the skin, while thin, does have a chewy quality to it.

The figs come out larger than a tennis ball at times, perhaps one-third to one-half the size of a $20 bill. 100grams is not unusual for this fig, with a maximum weight of 174grams that I am aware of: this fig is a meal. The leaves of the tree itself tend to be broad-fingered with serrated edges. Kremp also makes note of the large leaves, which match the large fruit size and should make this a fairly distinguishable leaf-type.

CONFUSION & SYNONYMY

This appears to be a different fig than the Long Yellow from Quail Gardens, but this is a topic that is still often-discussed and hotly-debated. There is another, similar debate regarding Ben's Golden Riverside/Robert's Golden Rainbow, which also came from the UCR collection. Many prominent figsters have gone on record stating they believe these figs to ALSO be Yellow Long Neck, but short of DNA evidence and a fully-sequenced genome it's hard to confirm if two figs are a genetic match, only if they are different. The mystery will continue, and we encourage you to do your own experiments to make a determination for yourself.