Nunzio DiMarca was born in the town of Motta, Santa Anastasia, Province of Catania in Sicily. He was the eldest of 3 brothers, Orazio, Anastasio and Carmelo. At the age of 12 in the company of his mother Agatha and his three brothers boarded the ship Saturnia that brought them to America. From the beginning, they settled in Lawrence, where a sister of Agata already resided and had told them about employment opportunities in this country.
Six days a week he and his brothers attended Holy Rosary Grammar School on Summer Street, where the principal taught them English.
His Catholic background has been written and talked about, the passion he felt for his family, his studies, his ease learning languages, the love he felt for Lawrence, the city that welcomed them and which he served as City Councilor. He also served this country as a Reservist in the Army for seven years.
We want to be different and mention another aspect of his life for which he felt passion: mushrooms!
Each year, at the end of autumn, he ventured through certain surrounding forests, where he knew how to find different varieties of them. Once at home, he prepared them differently and kept them in glass jars for family consumption, although most were distributed among his friends. We were lucky to be one of them, and we always had fresh mushrooms at home.
It comes to mind the time he invited us, together with Father Joel Almonó, to a “mushroom hunt,” as he called it. He took us inside the forest, where we only saw dry leaves on the ground and at one point he told us to look under the leaves and there, we found hundreds of small mushrooms shaped like umbrellas. Then he taught us how to process them. I must confess that they didn’t taste like the ones he made.
Although those were not the mushrooms to which we are referring. They were other enormous kind; some weighed about 20 Lbs.
These were processed differently. One of them was to cut them in slices, breaded and fried. Savoring them, you had no idea what you were eating; only that it was delicious. The taste and texture are very similar to turtle meat. Those who have tried it know what we are saying.
Unfortunately, Nunzio never revealed the places where he found his mushrooms every year, although he always shared his findings, he took the secret with him.
