this is Raymond I'm in Austin Texas and
it is fig season what do you do with the
extra figs well there's not a really
perfect way to preserve them but the
best way is probably to dry them I think
that making a preserve adding a whole
bunch of sugar is not the most
attractive or the desirable way so
drying figs using nature sun is is
really the best way to go the problem is
that once figs start to come in there's
a bukus of them there's an abundance of
them so we've got to do something with
them um this is a fig
this is quite rip it's ready to
eat and boy is it ever
delicious we're going to show you the
next phase I couldn't find a really good
video on drying so I'm going to show you
a quick demonstration on how to
effectively dry these things this is my
dry rack yours could be different but in
essence this is this is a an idea if you
will uh you you have to cover everything
up so that you can keep bugs and other
types of vermin away from it uh you
could use a cheesecloth you could use
any type of a fabric that would allow
air to flow through it yet lets plenty
of Sun through it this this is a frost
called a frost cloth used in the winter
time to keep vegetables growing in in
cooler type of climate uh but it's
effective it's kind of a poly stun spun
type of material it's it's uh uh thin
and light let plenty of sun light
through it let's take a look at this
rack what we've got a multi-tiered rack
uh
there we go uh these figs are put on
these figs are put on yesterday they're
still drying it takes about oh maybe
about 3 days to effectively dry these
are nothing more than window screens
that have cut the shape this is a PEX
pipe that's been curved and turned and
if you look over here a little detail
you can see that what I've done is I've
actually expanded this PEX and I've made
a a couple out of it so I could connect
it and put the two pieces together
without having to buy anything else uh
let's go ahead and cut the figs and get
it prepared okay let's wash these figs
uh squirrels Birds also like them so we
don't know what type of vermin or what
type of bugs may be on these things but
I think it's always a good idea to wash
them so let's quickly wash
them we are now at the cutting station
do know that a fresh pig that's mature
will not last very long it does not last
very long in the open Air does not last
very long in the fridge maybe 2 days
after a couple days they start getting
moldy even in the fridge so really and
truly drying is about the best way to
preserve figs if you got a number of fig
trees you're going to have so many Fig
it's impossible to eat them uh so it is
the recommended ways to go ahead and cut
them and prepare them for drying so
let's go ahead and do that this is a
fairly large fig and I'm going to go
ahead and not just cut it in half but
I'm going to quarter it the intention is
to make all of these figs about the same
size now the stems are not very tasty as
you can imagine uh here's another large
one we're going to cut it we're going to
quarter it looking good it's a lovely
fig here's a much smaller fig got a
little bit of a stem where you're going
to cut it only in half and notice that
they're all about the same size the
intention is is to get all the figs
about the same size so they'll all have
about the same drawing time here's
another one to quarter
it okay
we have finished cutting the figs uh
notice that there's a lot of room around
all the figs don't be surprised these
once you start cutting these figs into
quarters or into halves it's going to
eat up a lot of space so have plenty of
room on the screen you don't want the
figs touching each other because they
will develop mold right now in Texas we
have 90 plus degree weather off of the
pavement it's probably
100° uh in that environment these are a
combination of brown Texas uh Brown
turkey figs and Celeste
figs the figs are been quartered let's
put it in our drying
rack sliding it in these are nice and
fresh fits in pretty good nice little
system now I'm going to put this top
screen on because it's going to help to
keep
the uh
cloth from touching the Fig you don't
want the cloth to touch the Fig here's
cheesecloth type fabric I'm using again
a frost cloth you can use whatever you
need to use place it over the whole
thing the idea is to keep bugs and other
Vermin from finding interest in your
F so keep it
simple keep it
covered and let nature do its
work okay so right now we're in Texas
and we've got about 95° temperature
outside off of this Asal is probably
over 100° and this temperature takes
about 3 days for the figs to fully dry
out this is an example of what the figs
look like when they're dry uh they're
they're still kind of soft they're
they're chewy and uh and then I'm going
to tell you they are they are good
they're excellent with uh cereal and
dried fruit but we're going to leave
these figs out here again it takes about
3 days for them to fully dry out at the
end of the day make sure that you bring
the figs inside because the night
creatures are going to find these figs
as delicious As You Are