It's the middle of a brutal winter and I'm tired of the snow and this arctic cold weather. Just like all of you I've been dreaming of fresh figs.

That's a good tease.

Right now I am searching for a good food dehydrator to use to dry my figs and persimmons. I plan on dehydrating a bunch this coming season to have for snacking next winter. I'm betting that LSU Gold will make an excellent dried fig because of its properties. 

I've read that you can pick "astringent" persimmons early.....slice and then dry them and they will lose all astringency turning  into a delicious candy. They are supposedly sweeter than dates when dried.

Dan 

You guys have had one incredibly brutal winter.  And it looks like more is on the way, again. They are predicting near or below 0F tonight for NM, CO, OK, MO, and many, many points north and east.

I know most forget about us in Illinois near Chicago cause there seem to be but a few on this forum but here.
Not whining as i worked in train yards for almost 30 years in snow and cold on all shifts .
By the way nice looking figs to me -  the dark ones anyways.
Frankfort, IL

22°F/-8°F TonightBitterly cold. Clear to partly cloudy. Low -8F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.

14°F/-1°F ThursdayMainly sunny

Bass,
Those are some great looking figs. Some of them look familiar from your site but I can't recall the names on any of them at the moment. I especially like the color contrasts in the last two pics. Good job on those photos.

What variety is that last one? That dusky purple skin with the amber colored flesh sure makes a nice color combination. How's the flavor?

As for the weather: I guess we are really fortunate here in west KY. Just 2 hours north of us got ice and snow but all we got was rain - alot of it. The high yesterday (2/2/11) was about 57F. But by about 11:PM last night it was down to about 27. By that time though the precipitation had stopped but the high winds continued.

The good thing about the wind was that it dried up all the moisture on the roads so we didn't even experience any icey conditions at all! Everyone north and east of us? NOT so fortunate!
Hang in there folks, spring is just a month or so away!   

O M G Bass, I would LOVE to EAT Every fig in every picture....
Nice job on your pictures. What is the giant one called,
I would love to have one of them trees.
Can't wait untill summer...
Debbie
 

Dan, I dried some of my Brooklyn white and they came out excellent, I would assume LSU Gold would do well.

Bass..  You sure are tough on an old man! Yesterday was over 70 degrees and between weather and the forum , I want to dig my yard up and plant more FIGS ! Fredfig in New Bern,N.C.

I am indeed hungry for fresh figs. According to a temperature sensor hanging from one of my deciduous trees, it's -11 degrees F. here in Albuquerque.

Dan, do you think that your smoker cabinet would do a good job on drying. You should be able to get the temps down to the proper level. Why heck, you could even have smoked figs, sounds good to me.
"gene"

Flag on Bass for Taunting!

This Snow and Ice is killing me!

The only thing that is saving me is rooting cuttings.

All we need is TastOvision and SmellOvision.

___________
Dominick
Zone 6a-MA

Gene, my smoker is designed to hold moisture.....so it wouldn't dry figs very well. From what I have read, a good dehydrator will have an adjustable thermostat and fan.  I'm betting that some of those fresh figs that taste so good.....will taste extra good when dried. They may not be as pretty as a dried Calimyrna or Black Mission fig from California......but so what if they aren't pretty enough for the commercial market?  I hope to have some dried ones for eating during the winter next year when fresh figs are only a memory. A Celeste, VDB, LSU Gold, Golden Celeste, White Triana, St. Jerome, etc.......has to still taste good when dried. I've not seen much information about dried figs on the forums.

Dan

 i found a zip lock bag in the freezer it is not like fresh but I hope it will hold me through the next few months.. Oh I long for the summer days and waiting another day for a fig to fully ripen.

I could cheat and look at your website and facebook and your past postings to name the figs but will let others have fun.

I name one 9th picture down - Negretta
In my climate there darker with yellowish type interior as described from a well known fig author.

Dan , one season i was fortunate to dry figs out on patio table ,
store figs cannot come close to home grown fresh dry figs .
Weather here does not always permit this for me but after that season i now look for when it does. One must leave a little moisture or they will be to hard.
Hardy Chicago retained its rich flavor and my Sals kept its sweetness flavor.
Ate them into January few years back and posted pictures of a few of them back then.

Along with them i dried some Italian type tomatoes sprinkled with a pinch of salt  - oh my were they good with a slight roasted flavor and even better in Italian bread with some Asiago cheese and Sopressata

Martin, you are correct it's a Negretta, but it's the breba crop which wasn't as dark but colorful. 

This past summer, I  bought a multiple tray dehydrator on e-bay and  sliced a bunch of Hardy Chicago, Patrick Super Giant, Red Italian and an unknown purple figs.  I also put some newspapers  on the dash of my old Chevy truck with a screen on top and dried figs about 3 days  and they all turned out good. It helps to put in some extra and sample them while drying, but even doing that, some figs dry faster than others. I put them in the freezer in zip lok bags and eat them on top of cereal and sometimes just as a snack.  Still yummy even if they are dry and hard.  We made a lot of preserves and gave some as gifts.  Gotta be careful giving fig preserves as gifts, the recipient becomes addicted and hands back the empty jar with an expectant look.

Great looking pictures Bass, as always.

Bob, this is the breba fig of the Lebanese Red.

I am interested in the same 'wild' fig as Bill.  It is very unique.  Is this something you may have for sale soon, Bass?  Cuttings or plants?

Bass,

I'll gladly join the wild fig fan page for that last 'wild' fig. Thanks to Bill and Jason for starting the club. When available, I will also get in line.

JD

PS: I feel confident that the 8th image is Dark Portuguese because I remember the photo. Could the 4th photograph be Black Bethlehem?

I added the names for each picture. You guys can tell a good fig by its look.
These last two had amazing flavor, I will propagate them eventually. I need to confirm first they're not a smyrna type.

Consider Bass #7 and Bass #8 added to my "top 6" list ;)

These were among the best tasting figs I've had last season, and I've tasted over 200-300 types of figs. 

hello Bass, looks like I got to pay you a visit & come with a nice cheque or find some Syrian contact or get over to Syria. Either way its going to cost. Great finds, sure looks yummie & thanks for posting.

Hello Pauly,
you're welcome to visit anyime. Just take a ride with Rafed across the border, he can take you to see Jon, and the other fig nuts as well.