Figs

Abstract

Enormous fig trees reaching the eaves of a two-story house flourished in home gardens the length of the Eastern Shore from the early colonial period onward. Fig culture in the American South offers a conflicted narrative, one that blurs lines between the exotic and the everyday, the fragile and the hardy, slavery and freedom. The chapter explores the history, cultivation, preservation, and culinary uses of the fig through historical narratives, recipes, and oral histories.