You can usually count on a food trends report launching at the beginning of a new year. For those of us who exhibit at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, March 13-16, we see those trends and get to taste them firsthand. Here’s what we will be looking for (and how figs fit into a few of our favorite 2024...

Pepperoni pizza—supreme with sausage, beef, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and peppers— these are classic toppings on American pizza oven pizza dough, but at the California Milk Advisory Board pizza competition, Peter Reinhart introduced a new classic combination that evokes the spirit of California wine country in pizza: Four Cheese Balsamic Fig Tarte Flambé Pizza. This pizza was a finalist in the...

At IFT First, the focus of innovations in food can yield interesting insights into current food trends. 2023 wasn’t our first time at IFT. Here are some of the trends in food and beverage industry we heard as visitors stopped by our Blue Ribbon Fig Ingredients booth. IFT Current Food Trends, 2023 Filled Bars Filled bars are back—think the soft,...

Regular attendees of IFT in Chicago can count on learning about the science of food and discovery of technologies that will help them do their job more efficiently. What do you know about dried figs? This isn’t Valley Fig Growers first rodeo in Chicago. IFT is one of our can’t-miss conferences.  We keep coming back because our existing (and potential)...

For 10 years, we have been a proud sponsor of Chef Joanne Weir, starting first by supporting her television show “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class” in 2006 and now as a supporter of her food travel television show, Plates & Places. Weir’s cooking with figs brings people together over good food. In Plates & Places, Weir takes viewers to Morocco, Greece,...

At this time of year, our orchards are abuzz with activity because fresh figs are coming into season. If you’ve never had a fresh fig that’s sun-warmed right off the branch, you’re missing out! But, we don’t mean to tease because when you taste one of our dried California figs, you’re getting all the sun-drenched flavor in figs that dry...

Traveling to Anaheim for this year’s Natural Products Expo West? Make a plan to visit Valley Fig Growers at booth 687 where we will be sampling our luscious Mission and Golden dried California Figs along with delicious fig spread and cheese pairings. Come taste the best golden figs and mission figs grown in the Central Valley of California, sold under...

Cocoa, vanilla extract, and California Figs are a match made in heaven. We like them paired up in California Fig Babka, Fig Swirl Chocolate Buns, Chocolate Brie en Croute, and those little beauties from Rodelle Kitchen above: Cocoa Fig Jam Thumbprint Cookies. On Valentine’s Day, we’re bringing you something sweet indeed! Taste the goodness of California sun in our California...