In midsummer, when the windswept barrier island’s sixteen fig varieties ripen across yards and parks, ferries shuttle visitors out to the annual Ocracoke Fig Festival (August 2–3). At the laid-back and delicious affair, fig mimosas and fig beer flow, and the locals (self-dubbed O’cockers) share stories in their distinctive brogue. Chester Lynn, a tenth-generation native, shopkeeper, and author of Figments of Ocracoke, roots saplings of fig varieties such as Sugar, Lemon, and Brown Turkey, and sells them at his shop, Annabelle’s Antiques. He never misses the festival’s Fig for All event, when Fig Cake Bakeoff samples get passed around. Afterward, the bravest attendees do-si-do to Ocracoke’s version of square dancing, with the signature local moves “dive for the oyster” and “dig for the clam.”
Southern Agenda
Figging Out
Illustration: Tim Bower