Last week my wife and I spent a few days on Ocracoke Island, one of the barrier islands in NC�s Outer Bank. It has about 700 permanent residents, and is only accessible by ferry. It is an interesting place, with no hotels, no chain restaurants or any other "chain" businesses. Local innkeepers and business owners serve tourists and surf fishermen. It�s history goes back to the 1700�s, beginning with a group of pilots who could guide ships through the complex inlets that led to the area�s reputation as the "graveyard of the Atlantic". It is also known for its figs! Most of the old houses had a fig tree, brought in by early settlers. The descendants of both the early settlers and the early figs are still there. The village has an annual fig festival, featuring fig preserves and fig cakes. I talked with the local expert on figs, an older native whose parents were also natives. He is a florist, and he is often called upon for advice and gives talks on native heritage figs. He recognizes about ten or twelve different varieties of figs on the island. Brown Turkey and Celeste are the most common. There are two or three that seem unique to the island. One is a large fig, known as the Pound Fig, because it can "weigh nearly a pound". Another is a small brown fig, smaller than the Celeste, and with a unique elongated shape, and having an even sweeter taste than the Celeste, known locally as the "Sugar Fig". (He was aware that Sugar Fig is also an alternate name for Celeste.) A third is a dark, small fig, originally on nearby Portsmouth Island, and appropriately known as the Portsmouth fig. He directed me to a large Pound fig tree, which still had green figs in mid October. It had a deeply cut five pronged leaf, similar to that of Magnolia or Petite Negri. The figs were moderately large and had a flattened pumpkin shape. I came home with a small potted Pound fig and a cutting from a Sugar fig. It will be interesting to see if his observations are confirmed, and these are unique varieties. He also had some interesting stories. The island natives always claimed that fig trees would stop bearing figs about three years after the occupant moved out of the accompanying house. They believed that the tree became "lonely", causing the failure. He says that this is not true and that they stopped bearing because the occupants were no longer there to toss their kitchen scraps and cooking liquids under the fig tree, depriving the plant of nutrients. Fig enthusiasts who are traveling near the Outer Banks of NC should consider a visit to Ocracoke Island and Village. In addition to figs, it has great beaches and great surf fishing!