Drying Figs

A good friend gave us a big bag of figs he had picked off of his tree.  We always enjoy good homegrown fruit.  Figs have to be one of the most sweetest fruits in the world.  I looked around on the Internet and saw that figs are third sweetest, right after the mango and the date.  We've had fig preserves and we've eaten plenty raw and frozen, but we never tried drying them.  We decided today would be a good day to try.

Tricia washed up the figs first in a colander in the vegetable sink.

Beautiful figs all washed up

We put some in a bowl and just started snacking.  After eating a few, you instantly see why you have to fight the birds to get them first.  Our neighbor, Tony, has been patrolling his trees with his shotgun and there are random blackbird, mockingbird, and blue jay carcasses littering the landscape.

A bowl of figs for snacking

For some of them, we snip the stems off leaving the heavy sugary sweet fig for freezing.

Removing the stems

We individually freeze some and then pack them into ZipLoc bags.  Frozen whole figs put in a blender with a little honey, some goat kefir and a splash of cinnamon makes a fantastic fig smoothie that is perfect for a breakfast on the go.

Freezing some of the figs

Now for drying the rest of the figs.  Although you can dry them whole, we opted to cut them in half to have dried fig halves.  We think these are going to be a great dried fruit snack.

Cutting the figs in half

We then position the halved figs on the drying racks in the dehydrator.

Loading the dehydrator

Once we have all the trays loaded, we set it for 140 degrees and turn it on.  We aim to shoot for 12 -18 hours of drying.

All loaded up with fig halves

After the allotted time has passed, we turn off the dehydrator and allow them to cool. You can compare the picture above and below to see how much they have shrunk.

Figs have finished drying

Time to try one.  After they have cooled, the dried figs should feel like leather.  It should be dry to the touch and from a texture standpoint, they should be chewy.

Dried Fig!

The dried figs were a resounding success!  The flavor seems to be heightened, with a sweet, chewy consistency that will keep me going back to the snack drawer again and again.