Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Figs

It’s that time here in East Point. The figs are getting ripe and this year we have found a new tree that has black figs on it. They are not like any fig I have seen. They are not real large and are rounder than other figs I get. Inside they are more red than other figs.

figsWhat Stacey and I do is walk the hood and look for trees we can raid. We have a few regulars.
One gives us a medium size fig with a pale yellow color. Another gives us figs just like our tree at home. I think they are a brown turkey figs. Our other tree, we have two, gives us a small purple fig.

They are all very good and we eat them many ways. I think my favorite is as a stuffing for chickens or even better, Cornish Hens. We cook a regular Thanksgiving stuffing and add the figs. Man is it good. We had some last night.

Another good way is to split them in half and gently push a small chunk of blue cheese into the center of the fig. And you can’t go wrong if you wrap a fig in bacon and broil it. It works well if you cook the bacon half way and let it cool. Then wrap the fig and fix the bacon in place with a toothpick and broil ’till the bacon is finished. This way the figs don’t over cook and turn into a sugar bomb.

Figs were not a big part of our lives until we moved to this house in East point. Right away we embraced the figs growing at our new house and were very happy to have them. Over the years we have perfected many good ways to enjoy figs. And theres always a new way to try.

We like them so much we have found trees all over the hood and we use them all. Some figs come ripe before ours do, so we eat off those trees a few blocks away before we start harvesting ours.

Now in the bible it seems Jesus didn’t much care for figs.
“Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he was hungry.
“And when he saw a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only, and said to it, Let no fruit grow on you henceforward for ever.”
And presently the fig tree withered away.
“And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon has the fig tree withered away!”
–Matthew 21:18-20

Man, I got to tell you - I am so glad my figs haven’t withered.

Rosenbaum house

There is a house in Tuscumbia Alabama designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was built in 1939 in the Usonian style. Stacey and I toured this house not long ago and it was a really good tour. The guide was very informative and had tons of knowledge on many different aspects of the whole project. She told us the house was commissioned by the Rosenbaum Family. The lot was a wedding gift from the grooms Mom and Dad, who lived across the street.

House
At first, Wright did not want to do the job. After a few years of getting nowhere on the idea, Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum went to see him, and he finally agreed to design the house.

The two strangest things the guide told us was Wright never visited the property or the job site. And it was the only house he ever agreed to do a addition to. So in 1948, Wright designed the additional wing.

Mrs. Rosenbaum lived in the house until she passed in 1999, then it was purchased by the City of Florence. The house was in very poor condition by this time and the city stepped up and put out hundreds of thousands of dollars in to renovating it. Funny, the original house cost approximately $40,000 to build in 1939 and the addition cost in the $70,000 range.

frank-loyd-wright-001.jpgIt was restored to the original state after the addition. I was amazed at how much plywood was used. It was used for lots of the cabinets, used in the ceilings and was prevalent in the kitchen. It was also used for a bunch of furniture Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the house. Check out the photos. The guide told us plywood was hot at the time. It was the newest, coolest material and he loved using it for this project.

We had no idea that Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home in Alabama.
Wonder why he never went to the job site ? Wonder why he agreed to do an addition to the home ?