The high sugar content, retained as the fruit dries to a golden shade, make this fig the prime choice for fig bars and pastes. California Fig Availability California dried figs are never out of season, and are available all year. You can find them in your favorite grocery store in the produce or dried fruit section. Although considered a fruit, the fig is actually a flower that is inverted into itself. The seeds are drupes, or the real fruit.
Figs are the only fruit to fully ripen and semi-dry on the tree.
For many years the fig has been used as a coffee substitute. The fruit contains a proteolytic enzyme that is considered an aid to digestion and is used by the pharmaceutical industry. And, because of its high alkalinity it has been mentioned as being beneficial to persons wishing to quit smoking. Dried figs were first sold in a commerically manufactured cookie in 1892. A chemical found in figs, Psoralens, has been used for thousands of years to treat skin pigmentation diseases.