Although figs are a rising crop, they are still relatively unknown when compared to an apple or banana. The exciting part about figs is that they are so different from other crops, in appearance, taste, texture and aroma. There is also a lot of variety among the different cultivars. I recently took a trip to J. Marchini Farms to get a glimpse of their fresh fig harvest and packing process. Hopefully, this will help to better explain this exciting crop that everyone should at least try once!
Table of Contents
How do Figs Grow?
Three main things to know about figs are:
1. Not all figs grow at the same rate on the tree. For this reason, there are multiple harvests that take place on the same sets of trees. As you can see in the harvesting portion of the video below, the workers are harvesting a lot of figs from the interior portion of the tree. This is because this fig harvest took place at the start of the season and that was where the majority of the figs were ready to be harvested.
2. The dark figs start out growing as green figs and then change skin color as they ripen. The trees shown throughout this post are the Black Mission cultivar. In the pictures below, you can see the difference between the fruit as they grow.
3. Figs are harvested almost fully ripe. For this reason, it is very important that the harvesters select ripe figs to harvest in order to create the best consumer experience. Figs are also very fragile fruit and have a short shelf-life, so there are also other factors that need to be considered when dealing with soft, ripe figs.
Growers that do both fresh and dried fig production harvest the fresh fruit once it ripens and then leave any extra or any culled fresh fruit to dry in the California sun to be marketed as dried fruit, resulting in very little waste.
Fig Harvest
Latex on Freshly-Harvested Figs
One thing that is unique to figs (and mangoes) is that they leak latex when they are harvested.
This is important to consider because of latex allergies, as well as worker protection, in general. As you will see below, all workers are wearing gloves to harvest and their arms are fully covered. This is a common sight with harvesters to prevent contamination to the crop and to protect the workers’ skin from the sun. However with figs, this is also done to protect the workers skin from the oozing latex. Not only can it be an irritant, but it can also be difficult to wash off the skin. You can even see on the workers’ gloves where it looks like they might be dirty, that is just what the latex looks like as it dries on the gloves.
How are Figs Harvested?
Figs are harvested using clippers. The area that is cut is where the latex oozes out of the figs.
Figs are harvested based on skin color and firmness, as figs are harvested almost fully ripe. Since they are harvested ripe, that also means that they have a very short shelf-life and do not last long after being harvested.
Fig Packing
All of the harvested bins are transferred to the nearby facility to be sorted and packed. The following steps are performed during the fig packing process:
- Initial Quality Control – Once the bins arrive at the facility, there is a random set selected to be inspected. This is done to check the quality of the harvested product, including factors such as size, color or defect issues.
- Box Formation – The boxes used for the packed product are made on-site. There are designated workers that form the boxes.
- Sorting & Packing Product – Each packer has their own packing table, where they take the harvested yellow bins of product and sort it out, based on quality. There are three different quality levels that they are packing at this operation: primary market (clamshells), secondary market (green baskets) and the cull pile (brown bins).
- Quality Control – There is a designated quality control worker that will randomly select packed clamshells to inspect. They check for clamshell weight (to make sure they are reaching and not exceeding the desired customer weight), and the quality of the figs that are being packed.
- Labeling & Palletizing – Once a box of product has been packed, another worker comes through and moves the boxes to be labeled and palletized. Once a pallet has been completed, it is bundled and transferred to the cooler.
- Cooling – The palletized figs are cooled using forced-air cooling. They are kept in the cooler until they are shipped to the customer.
Fig Harvest & Packing in a Packinghouse Video
Click to watch the video below for a further detailed view of the fresh fig harvest and packing process at J. Marchini Farms.
Fig Harvest & Packing in the Field Video
To see the fresh fig harvesting and packing process from a different perspective, you can see the following video that was taken at Specialty Crop Co., where the freshly harvested figs are packed in a packing shed that is located in the field.
Food Safety Considerations
For a cherry harvesting and packing operation, some of the main food safety concerns are:
- Sanitation of the harvesting buckets and bins – Cleaning and sanitizing of the buckets and bins needs to occur on a regular and frequent basis.
- Worker hygiene – Since the harvesters are touching every fig they harvest during the harvesting process and the packers are sorting through the figs during the hand sort, there is a lot of actual handling taking place. Whether they are using their bare hands or gloves, there needs to be a hygiene policy in place to ensure that hand washing occurs every time before they return to work, and if they are using gloves, that they are clean and/or switched out regularly.
There are many more items to be taken into consideration, but this is just a brief list to get you thinking about it!
Postharvest Considerations
The most important factor for maintaining the longest shelf-life possible for figs is to get the fruit packed and cooled down as quickly as possible after harvest. Figs are highly perishable, especially when they are harvested ripe, and have a very short shelf-life, so the quicker they get cooled and the longer they stay cooled at the proper temperature, the longer the shelf-life they will have.
Featured Grower Information
I would like to send a big thank you to J. Marchini Farms and Specialty Crop Co. for the visits and for allowing the gathered content to be shared. J. Marchini Farms is located in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where they grow radicchio, treviso, figs, fennel and much more! You can also see more of their products and growing operations, featured here: radicchio and fennel, as well as their input on How to Select and Store Fresh Figs. Specialty Crop Co. is located in Central California, and they grow a variety of crops, including almonds, pistachios and citrus.
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GREAT – GREAT information!!
Fresh figs are a favorite of mine!!!