I couldn’t give a fig

Are you a fan of the fig? With parma ham and camembert perhaps? Or honey and greek yoghurt? Or dried and chopped and baked in a cake? Or mushed up into a figgy pudding (which we all like). Or perhaps dried, cooked into a jam and then folded into a soft biscuit - the noble fig roll (fig newton to those of you in North America).

Well, for now you might have to lay the fig love aside, and eat apricots. Or banana chips. Or indeed chocolate chip cookies, for the fig is a limited edition fruit. Fans of the fig roll have noticed bare shelves in supermarkets across Britain and have been contacting media outlets acros the country with their concerns. Which are not groundless as it turns out. Heat and drought in Greece and Turkey last year and a recall due to an unusually high level of toxic bloom on Turkish fruit have led to a dearth of figs, and the California crop can’t keep up with demand. It’s a bit like the chaos theory with the butterfly and the storm. But with figs. And heatwaves.

(PHOTO: SPIDERS)