#9204 - Jun 1992

Digital Archiving Completed by the Ethnography Lab, A University of Toronto Anthropology Initiative
and Produced in Collaboration with David Perlman/Wholenote Media Inc between July-December 2015.
Page D4
THE DRUM DIRECTORY, JUNE 25 1992
II!:
Continued from D 1
Just up the street at number 66 there
was shop that raised and sold chickens
and came complete with horse stalls.
For the exorbitant price of $6600 (remember
this was 1 930 and a depression
was on) he purchased this property.
To give you an idea of how outrageous
the price he paid was: the original
lawyer putting the agreement together
refiJsed to have anything to do with the
deal and another lawye •. was hired to
handle the purchase. For the amount he
paid, Salvatore could easily have purchased
a location on Yonge Street but
he was determined to have a location
on Kensington.
The dilapidated building was torn
down and a new building that would be
a horne and business for Salvatore and
his family was built. On the face of the
.building in the brick there is a cross
designed in the pattern. J ewish merchants
always had a Star of David in
their windows, so for Salvatore, being
Catholic, this was his mark. At the far
rear of the building four large cooler
rooms were built. Bananas would hang
here in storage until ready to be sold in
the shop at the front, or delivered and
sold wholesale to other stores. The
garage area held two trucks that were
used for deliveries.
For the next two decades Salvatore
Sanci and his wi-fe Antonia ran their
business and raised their children AQne
and Frances. Business ran nicely and it
was only during the second world w ar
that the business actually closed down,
sometimes for up to two weeks, when
banana stocks ran out and shipments
were delayed. At the· time bananas
were commonly used to treat patients
(usually infants) who suffered an intestinal
disorder called celiac (an inability
to tolerate gluten). Doctor s from Sick
Kids Hospital and mothers ordered
banana flakes as a replacement. It is
said that the banana saved the lives of
many patients with this disease. -
After the w ar the price of bananas
had reached 14c a pound retail. Salvatore
sanci died in 1 948 at the age of
56 and the responsibility of running the
family business fell in the hands of his
16-year-old daughter, Frances. Frances,
born in Toronto, learned to w alk by
holding onto those stalks of bananas
that hung in the cooler rooms at the
rear. She attended St Patrick's School
on McCaul Street and went to Central
Tech. She ran the family business with
sister Anne and their mother. They had
two trucks and two drivers to make
deliveries. Frances handled it all very
well and proved to be an astute
businesswoman. Remember this was
before the times of women's lib.
Frances married Tony Borg (a Maltese
immigrant) in 1951 and _in the years to
follow had three children (Salvatore,
Vincent and Antoinette). Frances remembers
the earlier years when a horse
and buggy was a common sight making
its rounds delivering ,milk bread or
whatever. Sales people roamed' the
streets carrying strings of small bagels
that sold for 5c a baker's dozen ( 13).
Shochets (supervisors of kosher slaughter)
with blood-stained aprons walked
the streets from the chicken slaughter
houses that operated from the back
alleys of the market. Many -Jewish
mothers helped put their sons through
medical school· cleaning chickens in
these slaughter houses, Frances mentions.
On Fridays at sundown · all the
shops closed for - what is called
Shabbos. J ewish families w ere home
for the Sabbath which is sundown
Friday to sundown Saturday. Saturdays
were very quiet in the Market place
here an'd shops did not open until sundown
Saturday. Frances had the
banana shop (as it was referred to
then) open until 2 am on many Saturday
nights. Sundays were also quiet
here as virtually every shop was
closed.
In the 195,0s Sanci banana started
stocking plantains and coconuts. Black
people who came from Halifax started
requesting these products. By the
1960s' banana wholesale deliveries had
ceased. It no longer made sense to
- continue this with a profit of only 25c
a case (40 lb box) and so other larger
ba'nana wholesalers like Mei-0-Ripe
Banana Brands with larger volumes
took over the banana supply business
(see photos). Sanci Banana started
importing foods from Jamaica at this
time.-Up until the 1920s most bananas
arrived her·e from Jamaica but the
problem of stem-rot brought an end to
these imports and so bananas started
arriving from central america. By 1960
Panama disease attacked large numbers
of banana plantations and diseaseresistant
strains had to be developed.
Today bananas are one of the largest
cash crops in Central America; In' North
America bananas are number two in
popularity, second only to apples. Sanci
Banana was the first to import produce
from Jamaica to Canada. Throughout
the 1960s products like mangoes, avocados,
yams and even breadfruit
started arriving by air freight. The shop
started selling Jamaican groceries like
ackees and. before long had the best
selection of exotic groceries found
anywhere. Sanci banana C!lid a brisk
business as more and more West Indian
immigrants started arriving in Toronto.
Frances Borg's husband Tony died in
1976. Tony had helped run the shop
during the 25 years of their marriage.
Frances still lives here,. with sister
Anne, in the home ~md b'usiness their
father built. Frances is retired riow
taking it easy and enjoying being the
grandmother of four. For those who
know she is affectionately referred to
as the true Queen of Kensington. The
eldest of her three children, son Salvatore,
took over the operation of Sanci
banana in 1986 when his mother
retired. Son Vince and daughter
Antoinette as well as Sal grew up working
part-time in the family business,
earning their spending money. Vince
got involved with the Liberal political
party during his t eens and eventually
ljecame the Principal Secretary and
Senior Aide to former premier David
Peterson. Today he is vice president of
\
The photographs:
DIRECTORY COVER: Carmine Pitoscia,
founder of Mel-0-Ripe Banana Brands
delivers bananas with horse and buggy, 1928
(photo courtesy Mel-0-Ripe Banana Brands)
TOP LEFT: Salvatore (Sal) Borg, 1985
(photo:Mike Savage)
BELOW: Salvatore and Antonia Sqnci,
Empire Studio
BOTTOM RIGHT: Frances Borg, 1985
(photo: Mike Savage)
American Barrick, a mineral exploration/investment
company. Antoinette is
a school teacher and mother of one.
She -lives in Port Credit with husband
Benjamin Da' Estrella Jr. (Kensington
Market Fish Company). None of
Frances Borg's children ever met their
grandfather.
Sal, who has his grandfather' s
name, carries on t he family business.
An important part of the business nowadays
is supplying many of Toronto' s
fine restaurants with a large selection
of exotic fruits and vegetables. Sal
remembers the days when he w as
growing up in Kensington; by then his
was one of the few families w ho still
lived and did their business here. In the
years earlier, before the 1960s, many
of Kensington market 's merchants lived
above the shops here and ran their
businesses. As a youngster remembers
earning fifty cent s unloading a
truckload of bananas. In 1960 bananas
retailed for 17 a pound for # 1, 15c a
pound for #2 and 5-1 Oc a pound for
overripes. This w as still very much like
small town then, he says, but the ethnic
makeup bf Ke'nsin'gton 'market W~ H
changing although it was still referred
to at the time as the Jewish Market.
More and more Port uguese were moving
in and Hungarians were _running
clothing stores on Augusta Avenue. Sal
, lives in East York w ith his wife Pamela
and three children. It would not be
surprising should one of his children
continue the family business in t he
future. Today the business is know n as
Sanci Tropical Foods. Bananas sell for
29c-59c a pound now, but considering
- inflation over the years bananas are st ill
an incredible bargain. The flavour and
vibrancy of the market remains, even
as Kensington continues its irreversible
cMange.