I love, love, LOVE this story, Evin. My partner and I had a fig tree on the west coast of Canada and we would cut them in half and put them in a toaster oven. It would bake them and carmelize them and they were heavenly. We just landed in Europe and already we found fresh figs in Paris. We couldn't help but buy a few! We hope to eat more now that we are in this part of the world!