The shocking (and stomach-churning) secret inside EVERY fig

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: PhoenixOD

....
I'm a vegetarian & I still eat fig newtons. The wasps are completely dissolved into the plant, so it's really no different than any other fertilizer. Otherwise vegetarians couldn't eat anything, because of the bacteria, microbes, and other insects that die in the fertilizers.

Take compost for instance. Bacteria & microbes break the compost down in a microscopic orgy until they create enough heat to kill themselves off. Then it's safe for use as fertilizer.

Yes, basically everything we eat is made from dead things at one point or another, what's the difference really, that's how nature works - always has...
I really don't see anything gross or disgusting or negative about it....

sounds like a figgin death cult ...

White
Anglo
Saxon
Professional'
S


Ban all things gooey and sweet
... especially figs

originally posted by: Bedlam
I thought this was common knowledge.

Some bugs are pretty ok. I think my favorite snack bug is ants. Some are peppery, some are tart, depends on the pile.

You may quite like these juicy fellas....

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: radarloveguy
sounds like a figgin death cult ...

White
Anglo
Saxon
Professional'
S

Yeah how do them wasps fit in that tiny hole? Like a camel going though the eye of a needle methinks.


Seriously though my cultural upbringing was that eating bugs is gross. But after traveling to different parts of the world and seeing that some people love eating bugs, I started thinking of it as not so gross. Now when I hear my ground pepper isn't allowed to contain more than a certain amount of insect parts, which used to bother me, doesn't bother me a bit.

The wasp eating might have bothered me before but not anymore.

If you were brought up to like eating bugs, you might enjoy eating them, like this girl:

Bugs as food


I'm not quite ready for that yet, but wasps in figs? No problem.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

I couldn't help but notice the girl
in the photo has her eyes closed , and is gritting her teeth ....

i'll just stick with the accidental mass production bugs
I can't see , in everything I eat ... eeewww

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
You may quite like these juicy fellas....

I'd guarantee they taste better than earthworms or roadkill.

My very favorite bugs look like this:

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
You may quite like these juicy fellas....

I'd guarantee they taste better than earthworms or roadkill.

My very favorite bugs look like this:

looks good.... where and when?...i will bring the beer ....

a reply to: radarloveguy
She's smiling and her eyes aren't closed, they may not be that wide to begin with and smiling makes them narrower.

I like trying the local cuisine but I have limits. I'll eat a wasp in a fig instead of this giant bug any day:

In particular, there were a lot of insects for sale for consumption, from crickets to water bugs to ant larva

originally posted by: Char-Lee
How strange tat I never saw any wasps in or near the trees in all the years we had them around our home.

You would think you would also see a wasp inside now and again as often you open ones that are not totally ripe, but never ever once saw one, we are talking what many hundreds of figs per tree, so a person should see some wasps?

The wasps involved are very tiny,most wasps believe it or not are tiny,a hand lens is required to identify them.The common wasp that most people are thinking of is another matter.

en.wikipedia.org...

The shocking truth about apples!!!!

While they may seem innocuous and pure, and loudly touted as the magic fruit
that will keep the doctor away, apples are, in fact, grown in some of the
most gag-inducing conditions that you could ever imagine.

The truth is stranger than fiction..........

"In order fer the apples to grow right," states veteran apple farmer Johnny
Farmertan, "We first start out the seeds in a wet mash of stinkin' horse manure.
And that's just the beginning. What people don't realize is that these
"so-called" healthy apples are grown in a mulch of dead plants, bug
carcasses, and animal feces."

"Now when all that gets wet (and it has to get wet to work) it all starts making
its way up into the tree via the root system. Next it works its way out to the
branches and finally ends up right smack dab in the middle of that innocent
looking apple you are feeding to your child!!!"

"So be careful, and only eat good clean food...."

I don't think I have eaten figs before...Aaaand now I never will

Damn, is that the crunchy thing always in the middle?
I always thought it was just a seed.

Trying to get away from the image of devouring a wasp. It's tough.
Another one of those things I did not want to know, but glad I do now.

BTW: Wasp Newtons? Ground up wasps and figs in my Newtons? Noooooooo

WASPs get blamed for everything.

a reply to: PhoenixOD

So... Bees make honey, and wasps make figs. Cool!

a reply to: charlyv

Another one of those things I did not want to know...

Is it a stretch then to assume you also do not want to know that the main ingredient used to make artificial raspberry & strawberry flavoring comes from a beaver's anus??? No, I am not kidding.

I really want to know what nutjob figured that out?!
Like, "Hey Bertha... taste this 'n tell me it don't taste jes' like a nice tangy raspberry!"

Like... gross me out the door already, am I right?!

I don't care about the wasps. Figs taste great. When I was a kid my grandparents used to have a big fig tree in their chicken pen and I would sit in the tree and eat figs and the chickens would get the ones that were no good. Did me no harm.

a reply to: PhoenixOD

I was never a big fan, but considered figs "alright" for years. Mainly ate them on occasion for their healthiness (?) and ancientness (that one I KNOW isn't a real word.)

But... I plucked a fig from a tree at a Napa Valley and ate it on the spot. One of the best foods I've ever eaten.

Now this... Now, I want to eat MORE fresh figs! Consuming the very same demonbugs which torture me at times, assimilating their proteins, gaining the Strength of the Wasp superpower? (OK, OK, been watching too many superhero shows/movies), but still. Hell yes! I shall call them wasp coffins from now on. Yum.

a reply to: PhoenixOD

Actually wasps are only required for the pollination of 2 of the 4 main groups of figs and are not required for any of the common species of figs.

edis.ifas.ufl.edu...?id=MG214

"However, the fruit of these fig cultivars had open "eyes" or ostioles (opening at the fruit apex) and were often attacked by insects and diseases. Scientists -- including Ira J. Condit, William B. Storey, and others working on genetic improvement of figs -- released new cultivars with closed eyes, cultivars that did not require pollination. Additionally, many fig cultivars were imported from the Old World within the last 50 years. Currently, however, no fig-breeding programs remain in the United States, and among at least 60-100 named cultivars of figs, relatively few are commonly grown in the southeastern United States."

The interesting thing is that the article mentions a whole wasp society taking place in every fig - because the eggs the female lays in the fig hatch, producing wasps that mate inside the fig and then dig their way out.

Oh no! That disgusts me!

One of my favorite things to do is go out on my horse and pick fruits in the afternoon- figs being one of them.
I don't think I could ever eat one again.