GIVEAWAY * * Giacomo Rao - Small Green Sicilian Figs - 5 Cuttings

 * * There will be no shipping from the evening of 12/10/2020-12/13/2020.  All items purchased from NYCfigs between those dates will be shipped on Monday 12/14/2020.  * * 

This is a giveaway for five (5) cuttings of Giacomo Rao, a Brooklyn heirloom fig tree from Palermo, Sicily.  Cuttings are fresh, juicy, and ready to root.  The cuttings are cut to a point on the top, straight on the bottom, and wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.  Nice assortment of tip (bud), and intermediate cuttings.  8" - 10" in length with at least 3 nodes per cutting.  Asking for $3.50 per pack to cover expenses and pay my sons Dominic and Carmine for helping, plus shipping.   The cuttings will be shipped to you via USPS First Class Mail. 

I was invited to visit this massive 40 something year old, Gravesend, Brooklyn fig tree during the middle of this summer and had the opportunity to pick pounds of fresh figs.  They're delicious!  The current owner invited me back to prune and I jumped at the opportunity to secure material for distribution.  This is a small, round, green fig with amber to a peach-colored pulp.  Medium-sized cavity.  Light, refreshing fig flavor with hints of melon.  Very sweet.  The skin is not tough but firmer than other green figs my family is used to.  Easy to bite into and not chewy.  A small amount of seed crunch.  Short stem, small eye.  Very prolific main crop; starts to ripen during the 3rd week of August through the end of September.  Unknown breba.  The tree (clearly) has a high amount of vigor.  Single and tri-lobed, coarsely serrated leaves with the majority being single-lobed or spade-type.  Leaves are thick and rough.  Very cold hardy.  40+ years old and never winter protected.  Common fig, no pollination necessary.  The type of vigor, leaf, and growth characteristics remind me of Palmata-types.  Maybe a Palmata cross?  Who knows.  We're green fig lovers and don't have a small green fig of this caliber in our collection so we're proud to add this heirloom.

We've all heard legends of ancestral fig trees so tall they're measured in stories and not feet.  Of all the wonderful NYC fig trees I'm granted access I've never had the opportunity to prune a massive, Old-World, Brooklyn heirloom.  The type of tree that grows so large the owner can pull the top into a second or third story window during the fall and eat fresh figs into the early winter.  The type of trees that suffer more fig loss from daily rail commuters picking figs from raised platforms than bird predation.  This is one of those fig trees.  Take a look at the screenshot I pulled from Google Streetview.  You can see the massive fig tree in the backyard of the house on the right.  Just above the fig tree is the NYC subway F Line and Google snapped a picture just as the train was going by.  From that picture, you can get an idea of just how big this fig tree really is.  That picture was taken by Google in August, 2011 and you can see the fig tree loaded with figs from the street!

The owner of this fig tree was the late Giacomo Rao.  Giacomo came to the Gravesend section of Brooklyn in the late 70's and opened a pizzeria that thrived for many decades.  Giacomo was a pillar in the community and even as I pruned a neighbor came out to tell me stories about him and this wonderful fig tree (nothing gets by a good Brooklyn neighbor, anyway).  Shortly after arriving in Gravesend, Giacomo received the fig tree as a gift from a friend who came from the same town in Palermo, Sicily.  Giacomo planted the tree in the spot where it now grows and it fruited the following season.  Giacomo loved his work, his family, and his fig tree.  The tree grew wild and needed to be pruned back every season.  Giacomo would tell his brother Giuseppe about the hard work involved in taking care of the fig tree and one season Giuseppe cut down the tree and removed it.  Giuseppe had good intentions and thought he was doing Giacomo a favor by cutting down the tree.  When Giacomo came home from the pizzeria Giuseppe showed him the fine work he'd done by cutting down the fig tree.  A huge fight started that lasted for an entire year until the tree grew back the following spring.  As I was pruning I found massive old trunks in the middle of the base of that tree and wondered if those were the trunks left by Giuseppe Rao so many years ago.  

This story ends like most immigrant stories in NYC.  The owners have since passed and extended families have moved on leaving the fig tree behind.  Sometimes a fig tree is important to the family and sometimes it's not.  In all cases, though, these are the original varieties brought here by our ancestors from the Old Country long ago and I can always make the argument that they're the best.  In this case, Giacomo taught his grandson Scott the importance of this fig tree and he knows how special this particular fig tree is to his grandfather and the family.  The house is being sold and there will no longer be access to this wonderful fig tree.  As collectors, we have to do our best to preserve these original classics.  I will be making some fig trees for Scott to share with his family and Scott would like cuttings of this wonderful variety distributed in the name of his grandfather Giacomo Rao.  

About NYCfigs

Like many children of Italian immigrants, I grew up around a wonderful fig tree.  We shared a building with our extended family in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx, NY and the fig tree was my Great-Grandfather Pietro's.  In 1942 Grandpa brought a small piece of that tree with him when he emigrated from Bari, Italy.  I have many childhood memories of playing with my brother and cousins under the canopy of that massive fig tree.  Grandpa's fig tree never failed to provide a delicious summer snack for all of us.  Although everyone has moved away and the building has since been sold, Grandpa's fig tree continues to grow in the same spot today.  I started growing my own fig tree on Staten Island in 1995 and collecting in 2012.  Today I consider myself a horticulturist, fig collector, and hobbyist with approximately 60 different fruiting varieties in our collection, including Great-Grandpa Pietro's.  My family enjoys propagating and raising figs in potted culture here in New York City with no help from a greenhouse.  Our goal is to find the many wonderful varieties of fig that grow well in NYC, USDA Zone 7b, with a minimal amount of fuss.  It is a wonderful, healthy activity we share together with friends and neighbors.  I am a proud member of CRFG, NAFEX, BYFG and a regular contributor to the Ourfigs and former Figs4Fun forums under the moniker nycfig.  I'm also a regular contributor and administrator for several Facebook Groups dedicated to figs including, OurFigs Fig Forum and one of the largest and oldest Facebook resources for figs, Rafed's Fig Group.  In 2016 I was honored with the title of Fig King at the Staten Island Fig Festival, New York State's only event encompassing all things fig.  I am also the founder and owner of figBid.com, the internet's only open marketplace dedicated to figs, and partnered with BidNGrow.com, the internet's only open marketplace dedicated to everything green.  

If you are the slightest bit interested in learning about fig trees I highly recommend joining www.ourfigs.com.  There are also several active Facebook groups that you can check out.  Just type "Fig Tree" in the Facebook search bar and click the link for 'Groups'.