Black Mission

Black Mission is a dark-skinned fig traditionally traced to Spanish Franciscan missionaries, who brought it to California and planted it at Mission San Diego in 1769 as they established the chain of missions up the California coast. It went on to become the dominant commercial fig variety in California before eventually being surpassed by the Sarilop/Calimyrna type for overall commercial volume. The fruit has deep purple-black skin and strawberry-colored flesh, with a rich, jammy, wine-like sweetness that carries real berry notes. It produces both a large breba crop and a medium-sized main crop, and can be considered an everbearing variety in the right climate. The skin often cracks when the fruit is fully ripe. The tree is long-lived and grows quite large, but it is genuinely sensitive to frost, a real practical consideration for growers outside California's milder growing regions.