Recently it was brought up about drying figs i had mentioned. I did not want to cut into the thread as i tend to do and change the subject which i often do -- my sincere apoligies.
Anyways im no expert at drying figs.
I use a board covered with cheese cloth and gather the mid morning ripe figs and cut slits in them and cover them with cheese cloth and set on my wrought iron table on patio in full sun. At night i bring them into the garage because the nights here at that time of year get humid and thats no good without any hot sun for them. Some figs i cut in half and do the same. I do not let them dry to to hard i like them a plyable and store them in a zip lock in cabinet they last for several months and then there all eaten by then so not sure how long they would actually last.
The large watery figs i find are no good for drying such as the unknown i used to have. To date i have only dried hardy chicago and sals and they both came out wonderful HC being for me the better of the 2 because of rich taste and some crunch , sals is the sweeter of the 2 its a matter of ones palate. Also when seasons permit me to dry in my neck of the woods i will try putting them elsewhere like on hot car roof on a metal type cookie tray covered with cheesecloth or perhaps in hot car with windows open somewhat for air movement. Oh there probably a ton of ways to dry them such as those dryers, threading them with some sort of string or wire and hanging them etc.
This is what i have done to date.
One thing i know for sure though as i may not be an expert on these things but im very good when it comes to what i like is the store ones cannot compare to your own dried figs period.
I will have more types to dry weather permitting here and im thinking my violet de bordeaux will be a wonderful 1 as well if i can hold off and not eat all of them. In short your own dry figs beat the store ones in my personal opinion everytime.
Best Health

dieseler
I don't get enough fresh ripe fig to dry any of those because the few that ripen, I prefer to eat them (& share them) fresh. However, I love dried fig very much in season and off season. So, yesterday when someone on the forum said he has never eaten a dried fig and you responded, I just opened a new box box of Turkish dried figs, big fat sweet ad soft. By the time I was at the end of reading the thread, I was at the fat fourth dried fig.
I used to buy the circular string ($1.50 here) but one day a grocery clerk of Turkish origin told me to try the boxed ones because they are much better. I said I am retired and can't afford those in case I got used it. He said, no, go ahead and try to afford it once. I did try to afford it and now I am stuck with the habit of the boxed ones.
I eat them more when surfing the two fig forums

There is a thread "Favorite Figs for Drying" on GWFF http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg051502047502.html    The following fig varieties were mentioned as favorites for drying or eating as dried figs - Black Mission, Calimyrna (Sari Lop - Turkish),  Celeste, Adriatic, Sierra, Kadota.  I will add Conadria to the list since they have shown up at our local coop.