Medjool dates & fresh figs

I've assumed for past 51 years that I hated dates so would never try them. I suspect this was from horrible memories of the deeply hated fruit cake of my youth.

I've been trying to broaden my fruit preferences (dislike citrus) and am trying to deal with a few...issues...so I decided to try a package of Medjool dates from Trader Joes. OMG, they are awesome! I've been limiting myself to one a day since they are so high in carbs - though perhaps I am looking at this incorrectly. On non-long-ride days I limit myself to about 150-175 carbs a day and since two dates = 35 carbs...

Do they actually spoil since they are dried :confused: There is a best-by date on the package but do I need to worry about that?

I do enjoy dried figs as well, but I decided to try fresh black figs from Trader Joes and OMG - they rock! SO different from dried figs and I prefer them. Hopefully they aren't supposed to be peeled because I haven't been doing that.

I've read suggestions that Medjool dates are good bike fuel since they enter the system so quickly, don't know how true that is. The same article also recommended dried jerky for the bike as well...doubt my stomach would appreciate THAT.

I have dates that are a year old and they are fine. I think if you lived in the hot humid south they might spoil, but they don't spoil here.

PS Come to my house, I have FRESH FIGS. they are 100% better than what you are eating out of trader joes!

I bought some "Brown Turkey" figs because they were pretty. :rolleyes: So..you just munch the whole thing? :o

Oh man, oh man, oh man do I love dates. I just bought a pile at a roadside stand. I never seem to have a problem with them keeping. I use them as snacks on rides with walnuts or cashews. Sometimes smushed together into a sticky kind of bar, but most of the times separate. Dates are about 80 calories an ounce, so I have to watch how many I eat and those plump medjool dates really add up.

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Originally Posted by snapdragen

I bought some "Brown Turkey" figs because they were pretty. :rolleyes: So..you just munch the whole thing? :o

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I did...I wasn't sure about the outside of it but they didn't seem to need peeling...If nothing else it is extra fiber :o

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Originally Posted by goldfinch

Oh man, oh man, oh man do I love dates. I just bought a pile at a roadside stand. I never seem to have a problem with them keeping. I use them as snacks on rides with walnuts or cashews. Sometimes smushed together into a sticky kind of bar, but most of the times separate. Dates are about 80 calories an ounce, so I have to watch how many I eat and those plump medjool dates really add up.

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Yeah, and they are pretty high in carbs, but oh so good.

What had me wondering if they were prone to spoiling is the outside of them have little white specks, but that doesn't mean anything. I am sold on them though - so I have new fruit options to add to my apples, bananas and, best of all...BERRIES

Mimi, I wish you lived closer to me, I would LOVE to find out what figs fresh off the tree taste like! At Trader Joe's they were refrigerated...is that actually necessary or just their way of preventing them from becoming overly ripe?

Catrin the berry monster :cool:

yeah, if they aren't refrigerated, they more or less just melt.

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

yeah, if they aren't refrigerated, they more or less just melt.

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Fresh figs remind me of eating them off the tree as a child. My mom still has a fig tree in her garden. I don't think Knott had one right off the tree till she had one of those. Delicious.

Whether the green or black figs when I can get them fresh or from a farm market they don't last. :)

A delicious, healthy, fiber rich dessert I kind of Frankensteined out of some raw recipes:

In a food processor, process a few fresh medjool dates, a tablespoon or two of ground flax seed, a pinch of salt, and a half a cup of rolled oats. add a tablespoon of maple syrup or agave nectar. Should be crumbly at this point.

Sprinkle the crumble on top of juicy, ripe peaches, sliced up

Perfect!

I absolutely LOVE medjool dates - sometimes they are called the "queen of dates". Also if you can find them, barhi (honey) dates, which are smaller and rounder, and black dates are great. If you have a middle-eastern food store you can get them in bulk and they may be a little cheaper.


Dried figs- just don't eat the stem. I like mission and calimyrna dried figs, but it's easy to eat too many of them.

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Originally Posted by Reesha

A delicious, healthy, fiber rich dessert I kind of Frankensteined out of some raw recipes:

In a food processor, process a few fresh medjool dates, a tablespoon or two of ground flax seed, a pinch of salt, and a half a cup of rolled oats. add a tablespoon of maple syrup or agave nectar. Should be crumbly at this point.

Sprinkle the crumble on top of juicy, ripe peaches, sliced up

Perfect!

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Sounds fantastic and I can see mixing this concoction with berries! I've a confession, I really don't care for peaches, nectarines or citrus.
I WILL eat a peach before an orange though, and I do like peach ice-cream. Then again, I've yet to find an ice cream I don't like :o

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Originally Posted by azfiddle

I absolutely LOVE medjool dates - sometimes they are called the "queen of dates". Also if you can find them, barhi (honey) dates, which are smaller and rounder, and black dates are great. If you have a middle-eastern food store you can get them in bulk and they may be a little cheaper.

Dried figs- just don't eat the stem. I like mission and calimyrna dried figs, but it's easy to eat too many of them.

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I love dried figs, just hadn't had fresh figs before yesterday and wasn't certain if I was supposed to eat the skin or not. I did :)

So I've tried two new fruits, well, one really and another in a form I've not had before. I would like to try other non-citrus fruits as well - but I draw the line at prunes <shiver>

Come on over, we're just about to harvest! We have 10 000 palms just on our kibbutz let alone the rest of the country...enough for all of you! We can even ride out to one of the young groves 1000 pa lms hat I helped water them when they were just planted. You can still reach the fruit from the ground out there and it is an easy ride of <5 km !!

The barhi is great! If you buy them yellow and hard put in freezer 48 hours then take it out and let it thaw. Goes a kind if caramel colour and is soft and yummy.
Medjool is the best though - all soft and juicy. They will be ready in month or 6 weeks...
but now I know you-all are interested I will keep an eye on them

There are lots of kinds of dates and they do grow some of them in parts of the US as well.

I love fresh figs --all varieties. I tend to peel off the skin and discard it.

What do others do here?

I have a fig tree in my yard, but some years it doesn't get warm enough for them to ripen on the tree. Last year, we got almost none before the rains started, and those we did get I ended up roasting (with some honey, then eating with balsamic & goat cheese. yum!) because they were a little underripe.

I love dates, too. Brought some home from France, in fact. Chop one up and put it on steel cut oats. Yum. Much better than brown sugar, and healthier, too!

I made fig jam today - with my 12 little Brown Turkey figs. I ended up with two small jars. :p It's a little sweet, I need to experiment with the recipe.

Add lemon zest and chopped walnuts.

mmmmmm, that reminds me of this Greek fig paste I got at the grocery store just because if they put a high enough price tag on something and display it with exotic foods, I will probably buy it just to see what it is. :rolleyes: It was made with lemon and hazelnuts and it was amazing (but probably not worth $10 for a little tray of it).

I love fresh figs. And fig marmalade/jam. I eat them whole, except the stem.

They are very tasty in a salad: some fresh arugula, quartered figs, some chopped hazelnuts, prosciutto... splurge some mozarella di bufala, balsamic vinegar & olive oil. Yum. You can also caramelize the figs with a bit of balsamic vinegar, putting them in a pan...

Mmm... we had two fig trees in our backyard when I was a kid. It was amazing - bowls and bowls of figs around this time of the year.

Something to try - wrap bacon around dates and fry them in the pan for about 5 minutes. So delicious.

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Originally Posted by Caddy

Something to try - wrap bacon around dates and fry them in the pan for about 5 minutes. So delicious.

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Or, go one step further - pull out the pit, replace it with slivered almonds and a little feta and close them up then wrap the date with prosciutto. Then fry or broil them. Then drizzle with a balsamic reduction - PURE HEAVEN.

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

Or, go one step further - pull out the pit, replace it with slivered almonds and a little feta and close them up then wrap the date with prosciutto. Then fry or broil them. Then drizzle with a balsamic reduction - PURE HEAVEN.

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OMG! Talk about decadent yumminess! My mouth is drooling just reading this...

It is only in the last year or two that I have ever tried fresh figs and I just love 'em.

If I had one last request of what I would eat before I died, it would be a handful of lovely fresh figs.

Oh yes, I eat the whole fig(s). :rolleyes:

Unfortunately they are quite an expensive fruit over here, usually £2 for 4 ($3).

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

Or, go one step further - pull out the pit, replace it with slivered almonds and a little feta and close them up then wrap the date with prosciutto. Then fry or broil them. Then drizzle with a balsamic reduction - PURE HEAVEN.

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I will second Catrin on her comment: OMG. I may have to buy some dates soon.