By Steven Biggs
In 2009, I wrote an article for Edible Toronto magazine feature two “fig fetishists” here in Southern Ontario. Below is part two, about Peter Vicano, a fig enthusiast in Brantford, Ontario.
Peter Vicano
I’ve come to Brantford to see Peter Vicano’s fig collection, housed in the “figatorium” he built at his house.Meeting him at the offices of his construction company, we start by touring the small greenhouse he’s also built there so he can have figs at work, too. “I have a fetish for figs,” he laughs.
“You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a fig off a tree,” he says.
For Vicano, no other fruit compares to a fig. “It’s the most exotic fruit; it’s the only word I can use to describe a fig, exotic.”While Vicano is passionate about figs, he’s fussy, too: “You can’t buy a really good fig,” he says, explaining that a ripe fig should be eaten within three hours of picking.
Besides being exotic, figs play an important role in Vicano family tradition. He tells me that it is customary to place fig leaves on the bottom of a basket filled with figs which, when given as a gift, wishes wellbeing.
Vicano has been playing with figs for the past twenty-five years, since he got his first tree from his dad, who brought a fig plant from Italy when he immigrated to Canada in 1956.
Figs in the Family
Peter Vicano with one of his late Uncle Rocco’s fig trees.
Vicano’s late uncle Rocco was a top-notch fig grower, with whom he had a friendly rivalry. Vicano is now custodian of one of his late uncle’s prized fig trees. His aunt still grows a potted fig tree, although he hasn’t been able to replicate the large crop she gets, and she won’t tell him her secret. Vicano’s mom, at the age of eighty, is also still tending a couple of fig trees. And his four children all love figs, he says.
“A fig tree will grow anywhere; you stick it in the ground, and it will root,” explains Vicano. He currently has ninety-four fig trees from all over Italy.
Despite his zeal for figs, he plays down his knowledge, saying, “I’m far from the expert.” When referring to relatives who consistently get good crops, Vicano says, “Certain people have knacks.” Then he suggests talking to a collector by the name of Adriano Ferreira...
A Figatorium
Peter Vicano with his “figatorium”
Vicano used to overwinter his fig trees by burying them. But he always wondered if there was a better way. “I’d lay awake at night thinking about this,” he says, as we talk about what he jokingly refers to as his figatorium. Vicano says many people lose the first crop of figs when they uncover their trees too early.
He describes the figatorium, now in its third year, as being like the Toronto Sky Dome, with a retractable roof.
The purpose is to get two pickings – and to exclude squirrels and chipmunks. Heated by a water boiler, the structure is a greenhouse with permanent walls and a removable plastic roof that he lifts off in the summer.
“My wife really didn’t want me to do it,” Vicano chuckles as we drive up towards the 84-foot-long building in front of his house.
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Figs won’t taste right if grown indoors, according to Vicano, which is why he has the removable plastic top, allowing them exposure to the elements. With the figatorium, he says, he eats figs from the beginning of June until November. While the picking window is only about two weeks per plant, he gets a fairly continuous supply thanks to the numerous varieties he grows. It’s the second crop, which ripens in September and October, that has a more intense, sweet flavour.
While the squirrels and chipmunks get fewer figs, there is still the occasional hitch: Vicano explains that the heating system recently failed and that sometimes it gets too hot in the figatorium and the figs don’t get enough dormancy to fruit properly.
“I really enjoy it,” says Vicano, talking about all the work that goes into raising figs. He often sends guests home with plants and I’m no exception, returning home with two new fig trees for my garden.
Vicano has added an Ontario twist to the family fig traditions. Once the crop begins to ripen, he and a friend sit down to celebrate the ripening of the figs – by pairing freshly picked figs with a bottle of cold icewine.
