Orange Fig Preserves
Our fig tree was ridiculous this summer and produced pounds upon pounds of fresh figs. While this was incredible, we had to figure out what the HECK to do with all those fresh figs! (And as someone who’d never really had figs before, I had no preconceived notions or ideas of what we should do to eat up all the fresh fruit growing in our yard.)
So, as a sensible woman, I decided we would make preserves.
And that we did. Jars upon jars of fig preserves.
You’ll start off with some water, orange juice and sugar in a large pot. You want the liquid to come to a boil and become clear.
Quarter your figs while the liquid mix is heating up. And then once the liquid is boiling, toss in those figs.
Bring them up to a boil, then simmer and cover for about 30 minutes, until the liquid is thick and gooey.
It’ll look a little something like this:
At this point, you can either can your preserves in sterilized jars or you can puree the mixture in a blender to make the texture consistent. Personal preference. Whatever floats your boat. But since we had so many figs, I actually did this both ways and both are delicious.
Sweet and simple, friends.

Orange Fig Preserves
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¾ cup orange juice freshly squeezed
- 3 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 5 lb. fresh figs
- ½ Valencia orange sliced
Equipment
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Instructions
- Bring water, orange juice and sugar to a boil in a large pot or a Dutch oven. You want the liquid to become clear before adding the figs.
- Quarter figs while water/OJ/sugar are coming to a boil.
- Drop in the figs to the pot and cook until sauce is thick and gooey. (About 30 minutes.)
- Add orange with peel on and stir in.
- Spoon into sterilized jars, then place in a water bath for 15 minutes.
- Pull cans out of water bath, and they are good to go!
Notes
Nutrition
And if you’re like us, keep a lot and then come up with fun/random ways to use your preserves. You won’t be disappointed!

About the Author:
Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her…
I’m so jealous that you have a fig tree. I’m dying to try a fig pizza recipe but fig preserves are pricey here. Blegh.
I was just talking about fig recipes tonight! This looks amazing.
What a lucky girl you are to have a fig tree in your yard!!!! I love figs but store bought ones are almost always icky.
I’m as jealous as the other girls here. I bought myself a jar of fig jam a few months ago and as I near the bottom of the jar, I’m feeling a little depressed. 🙁
Jealous?I am sick.I moved to Illinois from my home state of Texas where my husband was from
and I can’t find a fig let alone a fig tree.Figs are my favorite and I had a friend back home that made a preserve similar to these.I printed the recipe just in hopes I will find some figs.I did buy a jar of preserves but they are not that good.Wish me luck.I am so glad to have found you.
I used this recipe with some tweaks and it came out fantastic! Our figs are 1” and very sweet so we cut the sugar to 2 cups and used 1 1/4 cups OJ in 12 cups of figs. Used a whole Navel Orange instead of Valencia at the end and it made 9 full jelly jars. Thank you for your recipe to guide us!
Teresa, it makes me so happy to hear that you’ve used this recipe and made some tweaks and it was still good! Thank you for listing out what you changed so that others can see it works, too. 🙂 HOORAY for preserves and for summer produce! I hope y’all love the preserves for the months to come and use them on all the things.
Do dried figs work with this recipe?
Hey Josephine. I’ve never tried this recipe with dried figs. It would be interesting to try, though I’m not sure if they would work in this recipe. Sorry I can’t be more helpful. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!