The oiling of the figs: the verdict

I  tried olive-oiling my figs to get the biggest of fruits left on the tree to ripen earlier this autumn.

I can now report that, as a method for ripening late figs, it does seem to have worked ... except that I think I left it too late.

Yes, the figs are much riper - softer and brown rather than green - than those that were not oiled but they are still not ripe enough to enjoy eating.

I oiled them on October 3rd but wish I'd done it at the end of August or perhaps even in mid-August.

I will do it again next year to ripen late figs as it definitely does work and there are lots of reasonably large figs on the tree that would otherwise go to waste.

But, for this year, anything larger than a pea will be removed to avoid wasting the tree's energy on developing fruit that will not ripen.

And those tiny fruits will be the start of next year's harvest.