It’s time to pick those figs, the oldest fruit known to man. And there is so much more to do with them than just making fig jam or preserves.

Ficus carica (a member of the mulberry family), known to us as the common fig, has a history that dates to the earliest of times with mentions in the Bible.

It is believed figs originated in the fertile parts of southern Arabia and spread to ancient Crete and then subsequently to ancient Greece where they became a staple food. This edible growth of a plant was also revered in ancient Rome where figs were thought of as a sacred fruit.

In ancient times people carried strings of dried figs on long arduous journeys across the desert. The figs were a nutritious high protein, high carbohydrate food in a region where food was scarce.

Figs were brought to the Western Hemisphere by the Spaniards in the early 16th century. By the 19th century when a Spanish mission was established in San Diego, California, fig trees were planted. In the 20t...