I'm in Loudon County. I'm guessing, without seeing either the tree/leaves or the fruit, but I would bet you have a Brown Turkey fig. It's the most common besides Celeste, and Celeste wouldn't give you fruit after being winter killed to the ground, whereas BT will fruit on the current year's growth. You're on the absolute northern edge of where you can grow figs without winter protection. I won't go into how to protect your tree, there are many, many threads here on the subject. If you can't find them, let me know. But you probably will never have a bumper crop until you protect the tree from the ravages of winter. I currently grow several varieties in ground (one or two might be hardy enough for your area), but even here where I'm a full zone warmer than you, it can be a chancy thing. I grow many more varieties in pots (to keep in the garage over winter) than I'm able to in the ground.

As for your figs disappearing, I hate to tell you that humans are only one of about six or ten local animals that love, love, LOVE figs. You could be losing them to squirrels, ground squirrels, deer, raccoons (very likely) or oppossums (extremely likely). Oh, and birds....and I may be forgetting someone, lol. Your only recourse is probably to grow more figs than they can eat/beat you to, or build a wire mesh cage for protection. I contend with all the above, and it's still worth it when I eat a perfectly ripe fig.

John

I have a line on getting one from someone near Morristown. It too dies most years, but it produces figs on the new growth. The property owner said I could dig a piece, and I've cleared a space. I'm going to try to transplant it as soon as the ground is dry enough to work. With all this rain and snow we've had, it might be a while, but this week looks promising.

I may have to wait until fall, but it won't hurt to try.

Thanks John. Could you please post links to the fig care threads and thanks rgreen48 I live about 20 miles north east of Morristown. I once saw a huge fig tree there that had figs on it. It was an old tree so I know that some figs will grow outside around here.