If you had to find Franco Martorana’s house because you, say, needed to take a photo of him with one of his giant zucchinis, you certainly can’t miss it.
Both sides of his driveway are an explosion of green, with a late-summer bounty of tomatoes, grapes, zucchinis, eggplant, figs and the like, hanging heavily on the boughs.
“I like it, to pass time,” says the 72-year-old self-employed tile setter. “When I do my garden, most of the time I do it when I come home from work. I have supper, I come out here, relax.”
Currently, a pair of five-foot zucchinis hanging from a tall wooden frame are his most eye-catching crop.
They’re Sicilian Zucchinis, and Martorana’s favourite way to eat them is boiled with a little olive oil and black pepper.
They’re delicious – and healthy, he says.
“It’s incredible; it’s like medicine.”
The two big zucchinis still left in Martorana’s garden won’t be eaten, however. He’s letting them grow and will dry them later for seeds.
The original seeds came from his native Sicily.
Martorana immigrated to Canada in 1975 for work, and his current garden has been a 26-year labour of love, providing the freshest food for him and his family.
“It feels good,” he says of his time in the garden. “I’m proud when the seeds start to come out.”
