As you read this, calming violins open a familiar tune and that sweet mellifluous voice of Etta James soon enters your mind: "At laaaaaaaaassssst. My looooove has come along....." Great tune, right ! Well, it's appropriate here because, at LAST, here's the long-awaited Episode #9 of Know Your Food! That's right, friends, today we're going to explore the wondrous FIG in all of its sweet, soothing glory. One taste and happiness blossoms within you, washing over your entire being... We only wish that the following video was as professionally rendered as this paragraph of evocative prose... (but, we promise we'll get there one day).

In case you missed the actual nutrition info in that video (what little there was, LOL), here's the transcript:

"We interrupt this fig video with the painful realization that we have not in fact told you, loyal viewer, anything at ALL about the nutritional qualities of the FIG! Sometimes, we just get so caught up in the moment, we forget the larger picture ... -- or, errr, the larger video -- which, in this case, is to impart practical health information about our subject du jour. As such, aside from our puzzling focus on the insanely high amounts of calcium in figs, We did NOT bother to tell you that figs:

* are low-fat

* are high in fiber

* are high in Vitamin K

* have respectable amounts of Thiamin, Riboflavin, B6, and Pantothenic Acid

* are chock full of minerals like potassium, manganese, copper, magnesium, and iron

* contain beneficial flavonoids

So, go steal yourself some FIGS!!!"

(Note to literalists: We do not actually advocate stealing. It just seemed kind of exciting to put it that way. We get a little over-enthusiastic about our food sometimes.)

Thanks again to Mark from the Pittsburgh Raw Food Meetup Group for introducing the fig and for proving to us that the All Raw Directory is indeed becoming a valued go-to site for raw foodists worldwide for a number of reasons (among them the hunt for great raw recipes).

Today's raw recipe, as listed on the All Raw Directory, is a link to Elana's Pantry. Her "Fig tapenade" does indeed sound pretty amazing, so take a gander. Seems this one isn't strictly 100% raw, so you may have to substitute an ingredient or two, but it's certainly a great starting point. When you're ready for the cracker portion of the recipe, we recommend heading back to the All Raw Directory and searching for a suitable raw cracker (there are at least 15 cracker recipes linked to from there!).