Drying Figs for a Healthy Snack

Russ' new home has a big fig tree in the back yard.  They have been ripening and he picks well over a gallon of figs every single day.  He's been sharing the wealth with us.  After freezing several gallons for making smoothies later, we began to dry a bunch of them, too.  Once dried, they are shelf-stable and can be placed in a jar or zip loc bag for snacking on. 

Here is a batch of fresh-picked figs all washed up and ready for processing.  You can see that they are ripened to a state of perfection!  They are literally bursting with sweetness.

After washing, we slice off any remaining hard stems and slice in half.  It usually works best if one person slices and the next places the figs on drying trays.

We try to place the figs on the tray to use every square inch of space.  Once dried, they'll shrink up some.

With a little help, it doesn't take long to have all the figs washed, sliced, and placed on drying trays and all ready to be dehydrated.

We pop them in the dehydrator and put them on the fruit setting and leave them drying for approximately 36 hours.  All of the water will be eliminated (or most of it, anyway), leaving nothing but concentrated sweetness and flavor of figs.

They are perfect for snacking on.  The farmer that Benjamin works for dehydrates them like this and sells them at the Farmer's Market.  He markets them as "Fig Candy." 



We place them in a jar for snacking and have two additional batches completed now, so we are filling gallon-sized zip loc bags with "fig candy."

Let's hope this satisfies my sweet tooth!