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 become metaphorical, we could call them planted pachyderms.

We know that the scholar Joan Amades left written a saying that assured that "a fig, to be good, must have a hangman's neck, poor man's clothes, and a widow's eye". In other words, it must have a long neck (the "coll de dama" variety), that it hangs and has not fallen to the ground; poor man's 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 the leaves of the fig tree are rough and that the milky sap it releases when the fig is picked is very irritating to the skin. And it is to defend itself against predators, not to cure warts as was popularly believed.

We know that, in our country, in Catalonia, the largest 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.No one else can confirm it, but the singer did say it, probably to make the verses rhyme.

We also know that figs are very nutritious: they provide calcium with 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 or without skin. 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 skin and inner flesh, is the best thing about figs. In any case, science assures us that eating fig skin is nutritious: we ingest fiber and antioxidants, especially if the figs are dark. And antioxidants are the 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 pillar to post just to keep insisting that we don't fail or make mistakes. Let's eat them at all times (and keep the idioms that feature them).