Gillette: What Are Your Thoughts?

[ross]

I'm wondering if anyone of you consider this one to be a keeper. It doesn't look very productive, and I'm curious to know about your thoughts on its flavor.

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks mates.
-Ross

Update: I've found that there are many Gillettes floating around. Especially in the Pacific Northwest. I believe it to be a severely underrated fig and will do well for people seeking early brebas. It's a honey fig that can taste spicy and usually reminds people of a marshmallow. They call it "the marshmallow fig" because of the thick pith. It's prolific & productive.. some say even more prolific than Desert King. One thing for sure is that very few have tasted a properly ripened Gillette. You really need to let this one hang and shrivel or it's in most minds, insipid.

[don_sanders]

It's the best a man can get.

[cjccmc]

It's the best a man can get.

the power of advertising!

Winston tastes good like a .....

[mountainfigs]

Apparently "Gillet" was a nursery in California, per Condit:

Croisic (syns. Saint John, Cordelia, Pingo de Mel, Gillette). Described as Croisic by Solms-Laubach (1882, 1885), Trabut (1901), Leclerc du Sablon (1908), Rixford (1920a), and Condit (1942, 1947). Described as Saint John or Saint Johns by Wythes (1890b, 1900b), Wright (1895), Eisen (1901), Bunyard and Thomas (1904), Starnes and Monroe (1907, as Saint Jean Blanc), B. A. Bunyard (1925), 0. T. (1905), Thompson (1925), and Preston (1951). Described as Cordelia by Eisen (1896, 1901). Described as Pingo de Mel by Coleman (1887a), Eisen (1901), Thomas (1902), Henslow (1902), Cheffins (1905), Royal Horticultural Society (1916), and Condit (1921b). In 1882, Solms-Laubach reported observations both at Croisic and at Cherbourg, France, of an edible fig which, like the caprifig, had a zone of male flowers inside near the eye. Three years later he expressed the opinion that Croisic is simply a highly developed caprifig deprived of the blastophagas which normally inhabit caprifigs. In July, 1893, Gustav Eisen noticed in the San Francisco market some large yellow figs shipped from Cordelia, California. He examined the fruit and found “every one with a fully developed zone of male flowers, fully ripe, and with an abundant, perfectly developed pollen.” Eisen concluded that this fig was possibly identical with the Croisic described by Solms-Laubach, but he placed it in a special class, the Cordelia, or Ficus carica relicta. At a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, July 8, 1902, Henslow cited the fig variety Pingo de Mel as an exception to the rule that all edible figs are female, since its fruit bore stamens. According to Wythes (1890b), the Saint John, exhibited by Veitch and Sons, Chelsea, at the Temple Show in London, was a welcome addition to the list of good varieties. In 1900, Wythes expressed the opinion that Pingo de Mel and Saint John were not the same. However, George Bunyard, also O. T. and Thompson, regarded the two as identical, and recommended the variety as one of the best for forcing in pots. Trees of the Croisic are occasionally found in California, especially in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. They are also grown in a small way in Oregon under the name “Gillette,” because cuttings were obtained from the Gillet Nursery, Nevada City, California. P.I. No. 6,952, obtained from Malta as Tin Baitri or Saint John, and Nos. 18,858 and 18,885 of the Chiswick collection, have all proved to be identical with Croisic. Tree vigorous and productive; leaves medium to large, mostly 5-lobed; sinuses medium, narrow; base subcordate. Profichi medium or above, up to 1-3/4 inches in diameter, pyriform with distinct neck; ribs prominent, with surface often somewhat corrugated; eye fairly large, with yellowish-green scales; color greenish yellow; interior white; edible pulp insipid, lacking in sugar; staminate flowers few, generally lacking in pollen. Mammoni crop scanty in interior valleys but fair in cool, coastal climates; figs much the same as profichi.

[Altadena Mara]

color greenish yellow; interior white; edible pulp insipid, lacking in sugar;

Thanks for all the detail. I've tasted a number of figs like that this year.

George Bunyard writes: "St. John's or Pingo de Mel, a grand new early white variety, of middle size, which forces readily, and does not drop its first crop ; of delicious flavour, with tender flesh."
Catalogue of fruit trees cultivated by George Bunyard & Co., Royal Nurseries, 1898-99"

https://archive.org/stream/cu31924000721252/cu31924000721252_djvu.txt

[ross]

Found out some new info. Added it to the OP.

[Sod]

*Ben’s info was added.

[aphahn]

I got one from my small tree this year. It was good, and earlyish at aug 10, but not great and only one. So far it has promise, but will need to produce more figs to stay.