Produce

Dried Figs

A ripe fresh fig has a shelf life measured in days rather than weeks, which is why most figs sold in US supermarkets outside California's harvest window are the dried form rather than fresh — fig trees also don't ship or hold up to travel well, further limiting fresh figs to a narrow local season.

Figs are botanically unusual — what's eaten isn't technically a fruit in the strict sense but an inverted flower structure called a syconium, with the actual flowers and seeds developing on the inside rather than the outside.

Dried figs are a defining ingredient in fig bars, most famously Fig Newtons, and hold deep roots in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking, where fig trees are among the oldest cultivated fruit trees in recorded history.

California's Mission fig variety takes its name from Spanish missionaries, who are credited with bringing fig cuttings to California's mission settlements in the 18th century, cuttings that became the ancestor of the dark-skinned Mission fig still grown and dried in the state today.

Smyrna figs, the variety behind Calimyrna figs grown in California, require a genuinely unusual pollination process called caprification, relying on a specific tiny wasp and a separate, inedible wild caprifig tree to pollinate the Smyrna tree's flowers — a dependency that self-pollinating varieties like Mission or Kadota figs simply don't share.

Turkey and Greece, both centered on fig cultivation around the Aegean, have supplied dried figs to European and international markets for centuries, a trade history considerably older than California's fig industry.

The Fig Newton, still one of the best-known uses for dried and processed fig paste, takes its name from Newton, Massachusetts, where the Kennedy Biscuit Works first produced the cookie in 1891, a naming convention the company reportedly borrowed from a habit of naming its products after nearby towns.

Archaeological findings from the Jordan Valley have dated cultivated fig remains to roughly 11,300 years ago, evidence some researchers point to as making the fig one of the very earliest plants humans deliberately cultivated, potentially predating the domestication of cereal grains like wheat and barley in the same region.

Because a soft, sticky dried fig can be difficult to slice cleanly with a regular knife, briefly dipping the blade in hot water first, or using kitchen scissors instead, makes chopping a batch for a stuffing or salad considerably less messy.

Kadota figs, a lighter-colored variety grown in California alongside Mission and Calimyrna, are self-pollinating like Mission figs and are prized for a milder, honeyed flavor, giving dried-fig shoppers a genuine third distinct option beyond the two more commonly discussed varieties.

A simple homemade fig spread, simmered with a bit of water, sugar, and lemon juice until thick, is an easy way to use a bag of dried figs beyond snacking or baking, giving a jam-like result without needing fresh fruit or a full canning setup.