Fig Newtons
 

I tried Power Bars, but they're pricey and a little high on calories. They're also hard to open, and in hot weather get a little sticky. Fig Newtons are an inexpensive alternative. They'll give you the carbs you need, and you can almost buy a whole box for what one Power Bar costs. I put the FN's in a sandwich bag before heading out on the road. Raisons are also excellent. I get a ten pack of raisons from Walmart (about 2 bucks). They are individually packaged in little boxes, and are handy to stick in your pouch. If I remember correctly, just one little box provides 40% of the iron you need for the day.

Fig Newtons are great. PoorMans Powerbar:)
I get the fat-free ones.
They come in raspberry, apple, strawberry, strawberry-Kiwi and, of course, Fig. All are fat free except Fig, unless you specifically get the fat-free ones.

Great Energy snack, High carbs.

ChipR

Where do you get all the flavours?

At my grocery, they have the Chrisite and Presidents choice, and the only flavours are date and fig. (I really like date newtons a lot more!)

This may sound silly, but what is a fig newton? Is it a fig encased in a biscuit? (Which in the UK is called a fig roll)?

Bit of history of the fig newton

Charles M. Roser was a cookie maker born in Ohio. He won fame for creating the Fig Newton recipe before selling it to the Kennedy Biscuit Works (later called Nabisco).

A Fig Newton is a soft cookie filled with fig jam. A machine invented in 1891, made the mass production of Fig Newtons possible. James Henry Mitchell invented a machine which worked like a funnel within a funnel; the inside funnel supplied jam, while the outside funnel pumped out the dough, this produced an endless length of filled cookie, that was then cut into smaller pieces. The Kennedy Biscuit Works used Mitchell's invention to mass-produce the first Fig Newton Cookies in 1891.


And here is what the look like
http://images.netgrocer.com/jpegs/445270.jpg

Some nutritional facts about your favorite 'Power' snack...



The Power of Fig

And what you do while eating them!


Down Hill ;)

And of course a receipe for the ambitious...


http://www.shoeboxrecipes.com/html/fignewtons.html

I know the Fig Newtons.. 2 buts:
1 they don't contain protein at all, do they? Not fit for sustained long (& fairly slow) rides
2 they're not for sale in Europe..

I tried to buy peanut butter in the Netherlands. All I got were funny looks.

Peanut butter is VERY popular here.. it's called PINDAKAAS! Peanut cheese ;-).
There's both the regular Dutch and superior unsweetened peanut butter (also with extra bits of nuts and other stuff inside) and the foul American (sweetened) peanut butter..

Ya know where the "Newton" comes from?

The Kennedy biscuit works named all their products after communities in the Boston area ('Shrewsbury,' 'Harvard,' 'Beacon Hill,' etc.) They named their Fig bars after Newton, Mass.

Watch out for hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils in Fig Newton's,processed peanut butter(ie non-natural) and other "cheap" carb snacks.These are man-made oils designed to increase shelf life but are now almost universally being viewed as "bad"fats with a host of negitive effects and no positives.

I know that the Raspberry and Apple flavors are fat free. The Fig is available in a fat free model. I am unsure about the Strawberry-kiwi, I haven't looked.

I'll have to check that out.I'm always on the lookout for low cost carb snacks with healthy ingredients.

Thank goodness they didn't get named Fig Shrewsburys!

Fig newtons also makes a fig bar, which I guess is sort of like Nutra-fig. Those aren't available here, though.

I like date newtons too. Both are low in fat and sugar, and have lots of iron!However, sometimes, I wonder when I'm on a ride- are those seeds in my teeth or one of those little flies?

The health food store has their own fig cookies but they're kind of expensive.

I love me some Fig Newtons!

We got the Nabisco plant close by they supply our group with fig newtons and animal crackers every year for our ride to Washington D.C. The newtons are the biggest hit, but after three days of eating them i need about six months off before I can eat them with my scotch

I loves them Figgy Nu-Nu's!

If I remember correctly, I learned in biology class that figs have a symbiotic relationship with a certain wasp. The wasp lays its eggs in the figs and pollinates it. SO, according to this, we are also eating wasp larvae in the figs. I'll have to look into this because I don't remember the details.
I still love 'em, Larvae or no.

Dave

I know some of you don't believe me, so here:

http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/databas...1/b00704d.html

http://www.molassescreek.com/upd(sept02).htm


Its true!

No worse than eating honey. Bee puke! :D

I like figs also in fact I have some organic Turkish figs in my kitchen right now.It's the Newton's I can live without.

wasp larvae ? didn,t some one say they had no protein content ?

The fig wasp story is fascinating. It's something that I'd really like to read more about. Before everyone tosses their Newtons out the window, you have to keep a few things in mind...

1. The fruit of the fig tree is not a true fruit, it's actually more of a flower-carrying organ.

2. Only the female fruit is actually pollinated by the fig wasps' egg laying, and not every female fruit on the tree needs to be pollinated for tree reproductions and, in any event, in an orchard setting, since tree reproduction is controlled, it may not happen at all. In any event, the female fig fruit [the one with the larvae] is inedible. I found this:

... deciduous tree; subtropical; soft, pithy wood; bark is generally smooth and free of fissures, however 'burrknots' often occur on lower trunk and roots, nodal swellings form under and on both sides of leaf scars; leaves are large, petiolate, 3-7 lobed to almost entire (leaves aid in cultivar identification); bears morphologically unusual fruit called 'syconium' which is almost entirely vegetative peduncular tissue (true fruits are tiny pedicellate druplets within); Gynodioecious with two distinct forms: monoecious nonedible capri fig which serves as a pollenizer, and a pistillate edible fig; pollination achieved by fig wasp (Blastophaga psenes L.), which colonizes the syconium of the capri fig in a symbiotic relation; lateral bearing; 5-year generation time.

3. Moreover, only Smyrna figs -- wild Smyrna figs at that -- are actually pollinated in this way. Calimyrna figs, the hybrid variety of domesticated Smyrna figs grown in the US, don't reproduce without human intervention at all, so they're probably not being pollinated by wasps. Mission fig fruit are a little different and, evidently, do not pollinate using the wasp method.

Considering that very few of us eat wild figs in any context and, considering that the infested fruit in the wild fig tree is inedible anyway, you don't have to worry about extra protein in your diet.

More Fig info... there are four types [not varieties] of figs:

Common Fig
These figs develop parthenocarpically (without pollination) and are by far the most prevalent type of fig grown in Texas. The fruit does not have true seeds and is primarily produced on current season wood. Varieties recommended for Texas are of the Common Fig type.

Caprifig
The Caprifig produces a small non-edible fruit; however, the flowers inside the Caprifig produce pollen. This pollen is essential for fertilizing fruit of the Smyrna and San Pedro types. The pollen is transported from the Caprifig to the pollen-sterile types by a Blastophaga wasp. Commercial growers hang baskets of Blastophaga-infested Caprifigs so that the wasps can effectively fertilize the fruit. Caprifigs were grown successfully at Del Rio before 1901.

Smyrna
The Smyrna fig varieties produce large edible fruit with true seeds. The Blastophaga wasp and Caprifigs are required for pollination and normal fruit development. If this fertilization process does not occur, fruit will not develop properly and will fall from the tree. Smyrna-type figs are commonly sold as dried figs.

San Pedro
This type of fig bears two crops of fruit in one season--one crop on the previous season's growth and a second crop on current growth. The first crop, called the Breba crop, is parthenocarpic and does not require pollination. Fruit of the second crop is the Smyrna type and requires pollination from the Caprifig. Breba crops are produced early in the spring on last season's wood. However, the second crop of the Smyrna type may fail to set because of lack of pollination from Blastophaga and Caprifig. This second crop fruit drop frequently discourages homeowners.

I just tried some Fig Newmans tonight. They are of the Newman's Own brand. They were delicious and made with organic figs. I'm not sure how much of the other ingredients were organic though. Plus I like the whole thing about Newman donating all the proceeds from his products to charity.

Give 'em a shot. They might even be better than the classic from Nabisco.

Dave

We used to get Newman's salad dressings at the store, and I really like them but no one carries them anymore. Too bad!