Fig Chronicles: Liz Holtzman

My grandmother, who was Jewish and came from Ukraine, bought a house with my grandfather at 2209 Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, where I grew up. She and my grandfather must have bought the house from an Italian family because there was a fig tree in the backyard. I don't think there are fig trees in Ukraine (except maybe on the Black sea coast, far from where they lived), but that made no difference. My grandmother loved that tree and took special care of it. Our whole non-Italian family loved that tree, too. Because of that tree we still have a special place in our hearts for figs and fig trees. I tried growing one in a different part of Brooklyn, but with no success. I don't know if the tree is still at 2209--it might be. But I think you should know that the magic of the Italian fig trees (and their delicious figs) that were brought to America by Italian immigrants have had a big impact not restricted to people from Italy.