Research Partners project description

With the advent of Research Partners*, a whole new area of source possibilities are open! As a trial, it is unknown how well the website will work but just the chance someone may know information needed for this fig project is worth the effort to explain what I need. This is what I will say:

Collaboration makes ideas better!

"The figgy project surrounds the essential question of How can figs be produced and promoted for local farm market sales? This question leans toward two areas: producing enough figs to sell at a market and promoting enough interest that there will be sales once figs have been grown and are ready to sell. Finding someone knowledgeable about growing fig trees would be helpful, and then finding information about farm markets business practices."

Hopefully, someone will offer some advice.




*a PRISMS resource site where our Gifted Academic Program community circle can offer suggestions and ideas about projects

Essential Question

An Essential Question is the main, over-arching question that drives a research project. It is a higher order question of Evaluation that inspires all the other questions. I began this project thinking I was interested in the factors that promote  a personal preference in the backyard garden as something local folks would prefer as well. Since I sell at a local farm market, I want to increase interest and therefore sales of this somewhat obscure fruit. So, my question needs to incorporate two things 1) garden knowledge and 2) marketing strategies.

My essential question will be 

How can can figs be produced and promoted for local farm market sales?

From this question, all my other questions will erupt -- producing enough fig to sell and marketing strategies to build a client base desiring figs.

Selling figs -- a different skill than selling apples!

Figgy Poem -- First Fig

First Fig, a poem by Allison Elrod, is about the first fig that ripens and the delicious moment when it's picked and eaten. Yum!

Yummy is the only word to describe
the first fig of the season.

Sources for Figgy Thinking about Figs

This figgy brain is investigating sources I can access for my topic figs. Looking for information is like waiting for a fig to ripen. Figs ripen suddenly so when they are green and hard, the flesh is bitter and the ripening seems far off or impossible. However, checking each day...each day..each day..and one day suddenly, the color has changed and the flesh has softened. Ripening is now in sight! Within a couple days, they are ready to eat. Another couple days and they turn super sweet before falling off the tree and rotting.

That's the same with research. The search for information can seem far away, in fact, where is it? The suddenly a lead, or a set of keywords, or just the right person shows up, and there's a break-through! After that the research gets fast and information that once seems obscure becomes obvious.

These stepping stones look like figs
in puddles of water, no?

To start the research process in earnest, brainstorm some sources as the beginning stepping stones. 



Using a quick online search, I found some sources that may help initially. A quick phone call or email might get a couple leads for additional questions.

Primary Sources: 
Alson H. Smith Jr. Research and Extension Center, 595 Laurel Grove Road. Winchester, Virginia
540-869-2560 
Dudley Rinker, Rinker Orchards, 1156 Marlboro Road, Stephens City, Virginia 22655

540-869-1499

Secondary Sources: 

Locating newspaper articles about selling figs in Virginia may help. A good place to start may be newspaper archives. OH my! Library of Congress has an article from the Richmond Dispatch (Aug. 20, 1911) about big money in Mediterranean fruits such as figs and dates being grown in the US. That may warrant more investigation. 

Tertiary Source:

Since figs are plants, a plant catalog specializing in fruit trees would be helpful: Stark Bros. looks promising. It lists several kinds of fig trees for sale. However, since I already have fig trees, maybe I can propagate from what I have? A quick search gets some information from the Alabama Cooperative Extension about how to propagate fig trees which includes a list of other resources.

So, WOW!...a solid start! Ask some questions and start nibbling on some figgy information! 

Types of Sources

TJ Garden Book

When looking for information, the sources play an important role in legitimacy of a research project. There are three types of sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Primary sources are first-hand pieces of information. For example Thomas Jefferson's garden book that kept records of his plants. His original garden plans or letters of gardening advice would be primary. Did he have figs?

A book about TJ's Garden Book

Secondary Sources are second-hand pieces of information. They review or report about the primary sources. An author who writes a book about TJ's garden, or TJ's garden book would be generating a secondary source. A newspaper who publishes an article about the contemporary TJ garden at Montecello today would be secondary source. Maybe the garden has figs today.

Seed catalogs have lists
of garden books

Tertiary Sources are lists of the sources...manuals, guidebooks, catalogs. A mail order catalog of all the gardening books available from a publisher would be a tertiary source because it would be a list. Different publishers would have different list of course.





Researchers try to get as close the primary source as possible.

Dewey Decimal System and Figs

Books arrange by color.

Books can be arranged by color, or many other organization strategies but the most efficient way is with  decimal numbers because decimal numbers are infinite -- so the number of books, in theory, could be infinite. They were arranged by subject, title, and author in card catalog cabinets (see below) at one time. Now they are arranged in the online catalog by subject, title, and author. That way a book can be searched using whatever piece of information that is already known, in my case the subject  figs.

Card Catalog Cabinet

A search in the online catalog would help find out if specific titles for the figgy topic exists at this particular library. For the purposes of this post, the answer is yes, books exist in this particular library for figs. Fig cooking would be in the 640s, and fig planting would be in the 580s. When arriving at the area for the broad decimal category for the subject of figs, a specific book can be found by looking at the spine. Each spine has an identifier called a call number. It is made up of the Dewey Decimal number and, under that, the first two letters of the author's last name.

Shelton Public Schools uses this diagram to explain call numbers.

Libraries!

The word library carries two meanings: a structure and a collection of books. There are several libraries in the Frederick County area that may have books about figs--Handley, Bowman, Lord Fairfax Community College Polk Library. I have several personal libraries but neither one has figgy books. The ones in my offices are books of old fashioned, quirky information collected from the discard piles at both schools. At home, my libraries include bookshelves of studio clip art and a wall to wall, floor to ceiling library of cookbooks and typography books. There are recipes for figgy puddings and fig preserves but nothing about propagating fig trees and selling them..

When information is needed beyond what exists in these libraries, like a bunch of figgy stuff,  I go to a library and see the reference librarian who makes it her/his job to find information....like an information detective.

Guiseppe Arcimboldo's version of a librarian called The Librarian.