Figs, with skin or without?

With figs we have certainties. We know they are a fruit that arouses lively passion. If we pick them from the fig tree and eat them immediately, we will feel the summer slipping through our fingers, because figs, especially the "coll de dama" variety, mark the end of August.

We know we have more varieties than days to eat them: "ull de perdiu", black "coll de dama", white "coll de dama", "adam", "napolitana", "figa plàtan", "cendrosa", and more. We know that in Mallorca there are beautiful fig tree fields, which are expanses that, if we get metaphorical, we could say are planted pachyderms.

We know that the scholar Joan Amades left written a saying that assured that “a fig, to be good, must have the neck of a hanged man, the clothes of a poor person, and the eye of a widow”. In other words, it must have a long neck (the "coll de dama" variety), hanging and not fallen to the ground; poor clothes, cracked, and the expression “ull de viuda” means that it must have the hole left by the sparrow's beak, and through which other insects have also ended up entering. 

We know that fig tree leaves are rough and that the milky sap it releases when the fig is picked is very irritating to the skin. It is to defend itself against predators, not to cure warts as had been popularly said.

We know that, in our country, in Catalonia, the great production is concentrated in Lleida, followed by Barcelona, Tarragona, and Girona.Maria del Mar Bonet and Alicante figs

We know that, in the Song of cooking figs, the beloved Maria del Mar Bonet says that the Alicante variety causes a headache. This variety is also known by the names galantina or clara blanca, and they are the green figs of August. The singer from Mallorca says it like this:  

I cook figs all day,and I haven't eaten any,because they are from Alicanteand they usually give me a headache.There is no one else who assures it, but the singer did say it, probably to make the verses rhyme.

We also know that figs are very nutritious: they provide calcium of very good availability and also fiber, which is very interesting for intestinal health. The calcium that figs provide to the body is even more important when they are dry; that is, when they lose water and become dried fruit, which we can eat all year round.

We know all these certainties, but there is one that divides the country from one end to the other: whether we should eat them with skin or without. Depending on the variety, the debate ends quickly. The Alicante variety has always been eaten whole, once we have washed it, but with the "coll de dama" variety the story is not so clear. Some say that the skin is too thick and distorts the soft taste of the inside. Others say that precisely this fact, the contrast between the skin and the inner flesh, is the best thing about figs. In any case, science assures us that eating the skin of figs is nutritious: we ingest fiber and antioxidants, especially if the figs are dark. And antioxidants are great allies against cellular aging.

Apart from all this, there is also the taste: the skin provides a different taste from the pulp. So, at this point, what we call it is not worth a fig: we could continue going from fig to pear just to continue maintaining that we don't get into trouble or weigh figs. Let's eat them at all hours (and let's keep the idioms that feature them).