Hello loyal GGO fans and Happy Delivery Day!

As usual, the produce looked great leaving this morning. I am already enjoying the grapes as my morning snack. 🙂

This week, I wanted to shed a little light on the fig. It can be an intimidating and questionable fruit if you’ve never had one before. Much different than a fig newton or a dried fig, a fresh fig has a deliciously sweet and light flavor. Some have likened its flavor to a strawberry and peach hybrid.

Like many other produce items, figs have special caring instructions if you want them to last longer than a day. Figs won’t last long at room temperature, but a mildly cool refrigerator will keep them several days.

You can also freeze your figs! This must be done within the first 12 hours of receiving them. Follow these tips to keep them sweet and delicious while frozen (instructions are for 1 pint):

• Make a medium sweetness syrup of
  1 cup sugar
  1.5 cups water

• The figs will taste slightly sweeter than desired at this stage to be the proper flavor after freezing. Simply stir the sugar into the water to dissolve. No heating is necessary.

• To the sugar syrup, add a citric/ascorbic mixture bought at the grocery store (for example, “Fruit Fresh”) and follow the directions on the package, generally adding about 1 teaspoon per batch.  This is to help preserve color and flavor.

• Wash the figs. remove the stems and any soft spots. Slice the figs about ¼-inch (1/2 cm) thick.

• Pack the sliced figs into polyethylene containers, ziploc bags, or vacuum freezer bags, allowing room to add about 1/2 cup of sugar syrup, and allowing about 1/2 inch per pint expansion room. More room will be needed for larger containers. Pack the containers to force out as much air as possible since air dries out the figs when they freeze. Be sure to label and date containers.

• Place containers as quickly as possible into the coldest part of your freezer, allowing room around the containers to promote fast freezing. Containers can be packed more economically after they are frozen solid, usually 24 hours.

When you are ready to eat them, thaw the frozen figs in the refrigerator in the container.

As always, enjoy your box of organic produce goodies! Please let us know what creations you come up with! Also, be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter.