The ANNOTICO Report

The trouble those Italians in the colder climes in the US go through in
order to enjoy their Fig Tree, and the wonderful thoughts associated, is
remarkable, and touching.

The Republican
Springfield Massachusetts
By Danielle Paine at  dpaine@repub.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

SPRINGFIELD - Alfonso Sarno keeps his sweetest childhood memories of Italy
alive by putting them six feet under.

It takes two men besides himself, Sarno said, to hoist the beloved family
fig tree out of its 14-foot trench each spring. This year marked the 21st
time the plant was buried in the backyard garden at 662 Dickinson St.,
before the frost could harm the warm-climate plant, just to be dug up again
and re-planted in the sunshine of early May.

"They lived on a beautiful countryside in Italy where you ate right from
the land, and when he came to America, the fig tree is what he missed
most," Giovanna S. Cummings said about her father, Sarno, who came to
Springfield in 1948 from his home in the town of Bracigliano in the
province of Salerno.

"Figs in the store just never tasted like figs from the tree, but having
this is like eating it off the vine in Salerno. It brings back a piece of
home," she said.

Just as Sarno's tree began, he now grafts the tree so friends and family
can plant their own fruit-bearing legacy. After all, he has so many new
chutes growing from the trunk that he chopped five last year to ensure the
tree wouldn't become too big for its trench. Aside from being big enough to
house Sarno's green gusto, the hole must employ thick planks of wood and
about a dozen cement blocks to insulate and protect the tree.

"I've got to continue the tradition," Sarno said, looking into the deep
hole at the tree, which was already budding even underground. "My customers
ask about it; you'd really be surprised at who tastes my figs."

As a "barber's barber" since 1956, Sarno shares the fruits of his labor
with the friends, politicians and judges who depend on him to trim their
locks in "Al's Barbershop" on the first floor of his home. His wife, Clara
Sarno, uses the other side of the first floor for her thriving alteration
business. Not too many people visit during the September harvest without
tasting fresh figs, they say. The father of three and grandfather to four
has lived his life immersed in the local Italian community and old world
tradition.

His eldest son, City Councilor Domenic J. Sarno, stressed the importance of
tradition in their family when laughing about his many memories laboring
over the fig tree.

Cummings remembers seeing her father walking into local wooded areas to
hunt for wild mushrooms and watercress. She recalled telling her friends
that she didn't know him whenever he was spotted in his watercress hunting
gear: black rubber boots, a "crazy hat" and a sword-like knife. Alfonso
Sarno quickly stopped the story before his secret hunting grounds for
fungus was revealed.

"Fig trees and grapevines are something that connects Italian immigrants to
the old country," he said. "For many Italian-Americans, it is a sense of
pride to have the biggest tree or the sweetest figs or the best grapevine."

Alfonso Sarno has no problem boasting about his superior figs and for those
who don't know already, his new grapevine is expected to start bearing
fruit this summer.

http://www.masslive.com/metroeastplus
/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1116
316351289570.xml&coll=1