Athena Dried Figs, Greek Specialty 397g (14oz)

Athena Dried Figs are Greek sun-dried figs — the whole dried fig in the Athena brand format, representing the Greek tradition of fig drying that transforms the perishable late-summer fig into a shelf-stable, intensely sweet, chewy dried fruit that has been a staple of Mediterranean diets for thousands of years. Athena is a Greek food brand producing the specialty ingredients and preserved goods of the Greek pantry for export and diaspora markets — the dried figs connecting to Greece's long history as one of the Mediterranean's foremost fig-producing regions, where the Kalamata and Vravona varieties are dried in the sun and traded domestically and internationally. Figs have been cultivated and dried in Greece since antiquity: Greek dried figs were traded throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, and Homer's Odyssey mentions fig orchards as a marker of prosperity — today Greece remains a significant fig-producing country, and the tradition of sun-drying figs on wicker racks in the late summer continues in the Peloponnese and on islands like Kalamata and Evia, producing the wrinkled, honey-sweet dried figs that represent one of the Mediterranean's oldest preserved foods. Eat as a snack on their own, pair with walnuts, blue cheese, or aged hard cheese as a Mediterranean cheese board accompaniment, chop into yogurt or oatmeal, use in baking for fig-and-walnut bread or tart fillings, or serve alongside cured meats and olives as the sweet element of a Greek mezze table.