Genzano di Lucania, Cavallina.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, Genzano di Lucania

 Genzano di Lucania Fontana Cavallina. 

Welcome to our article, Genzano di Lucania.

Now let me explain. 

Today in January 2022, I am adding this link to my blog, a per #genzanoamarcord... it is a video link from Facebook, and it talks about La'Cavallina fountain of Genzano. The name of this fountain comes from this big round through in the foreground you see in the picture above, this is where we used to water the horses, it laterally means the horse fountain, or better still the little mare fountain. Now that I have explained that, let me tell you why I am adding the link and this writing to my blog. 

Anyhow, I have noted that the subtitles in the video, tell you only half the story adding other things that do not belong to the story, perhaps this is due to the fact, that the writer of the subtitles, does not understand the dialect fully, and has not lived in those times in Genzano. So, hereunder I am writing my own version, hoping that Francesco Cannito, (the speaker) and Genzano di Lucania amarcord, or whoever is involved do not mind me doing this. 

Genzano di Lucania, translated from dialect. 

Genzano di Lucania is a town on the top of a hill, it it beautiful at night and in the morning, whoever looks at it at anytime, from the top and from bottom remains enchanted, as if it is the most beautiful star, because Genzano is truly beautiful. Hey man! Love our town of Genzano, because Genzano is always our town. And I remember when I was a young boy, that more than a hundred youths were playing at the Cavallina fountain, and the fountain was smiling and was happy, because it had company, and we would treat her as if it was our mother. 

And when we were playing on the fountain steps, or near the main Madonna church, or on the Annunziata church steps, we were happy and worry free. And we were imagining who was driving a Ferrari and who was driving a Maserati, and many other things we were dreaming about, since then there are many springs gone by.  

Anyhow, the people of a town nearby called Acerenza, they call us the larduns, not because we are big or fat, but because we have a lot of monuments, and we are proud and talk about them continually. But what you got they ask us? (We answer) You look and think that this may be nothing? The Castle, Capodaqua, the church of La Madonaa, the Villa, the Corso, that when they turn the feast lights on we tremble with emotions. and then the Paese Vecchio. And then let us not speak of the Cavallina fountain. The Cavallina fountain is one of the most beautiful fountain of Italy, you look at it, and you will remain enchanted, and if you make a comment, it will answer you. Yes, I am the most beautiful monument.  

Paese Vecchio (Old Town) where there are many narrow and streets and tiny streets. There lived many people that had not much schooling but were intelligent. and when they worked, worked hard with great passion.  You see, I remember my grandma that was ironing my trousers with the iron heated with live coals, they were ironed perfectly, and they were strait and beautiful, that even the stars above would look at me, how beautiful they were. And then we can talk about, when I was looking at my mother,  when she was washing the cloths with soap on the scrubbing board, for hours sometimes, anyhow, when she hanged the cloths to dry in the sun, they were so bright, and they would glider, as if they were made of gold. These were joyous time and also painful. And after the washing, I was waiting when they would sing their song of the washing lady. 

My name is Rose and I am twenty

And a Capodaqua I wash the cloths 

This is the dowry that mum gives me 

One scrubbing board and a basket for cloths.     

Here Francesco Cannito signs off. Adding other particulars, not important to repeat, so let us go back to our normal life story. From, a per #genzanoamarcord...

Welcome to my native town Genzano di Lucania. 

Dear readers, let me tell you about my native town of Genzano, because I was born and grown in this town of Genzano di Lucania. My native town of Genzano, is a normal small town in Italy Southern regions. 

Now, allow me to explain the situation to our readers, since I am an Italian born and grew in this town of Genzano di Lucania, I suppose that most of my town people would have liked to see this article written in Italian; but that has not been possible to do for a couple of reasons, first because our computer programs are in English, therefore, it is hard to write in another language other than English, because the computer will mark those writing as being wrong.

The other reason is that the English language has a very large audience, and there are a lot of migrated Italians that speak English now. So, I have decided to write them in English, because it is easier for me; however I am also writing a blog in blogger about Genzano at this link; http://genzanoit.blogspot.com, you can visit it and there is a lot more about this Genzano town, there are a few pages written in Italian, in the page section and links that helps see other things about this town, including articles that have been written from native writers.

Now let me introduce myself again in this article, so that my countrymen know who I am, my name is, Francesco Menchise and I was born and lived in Genzano di Lucania when I was young, So, I want to salute all those who remember me, since I remember most of you even today; greetings and all the best to you all my friends. I must say that while I am writing this article, I wish I could see you once again even if it is for a short while, you see even today after a long time I feel homesick, well not really homesick, but I would like to be back there once again, just to see the people that I know and what has happened since I left town.

We hope that in this article, we can talk about interesting things of Genzano di Lucania. Now for those that don't know where Genzano di Lucania is, you will find a Google map to show you. 

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Welcome to Genzano di Lucania

Let me welcome you again to read about my native town of Genzano di Lucania, because this is the town where I was born and where I lived when I was young, I am writing about this town, so that you would understand better my life story and those events that were taking place in this town when I was young. 

Now let me explain, hereunder are some links, please point to the link and then click on the links as prompted by your computer.

Genzano di Lucania, Youtube link, I say it is an excellent video to start with.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dEon5GA04Y

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsPrg1ucmsQ

www.comune.genzano.pz.it/

Genzano di Lucania - Basilicata - indettaglio.it

Let us hope that these links work for our readers, anyhow there are other things that we want to show you starting with Genzano soccer field.

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Genzano soccer field. 

In Italy one of the main sports that everybody follows is what we call here soccer, so, most towns have their soccer field. Genzano di Lucania has its own soccer field too, which the inhabitant would be proud to show you beside other things; but let us start to show you some photos, since the Italian people love soccer; as far as I remember Genzano has had a soccer team, and today they have a proper soccer field as well.

We need to say here that when I was a teenager there was not a real soccer field yet, anyone that was interested in soccer had to wait after the wheat harvest to get the soccer field going for that season. After the wheat harvest in a field at the outskirt of the town they would flatten the ground level enough to play for that season. It was okay, because in Southern Italy in summer is usually very dry, so, the soccer matches were on just the same, but there were times when a thunderstorm would come and ruin the sporting event. I remember this because it happened to me when I was young, we all had to run and find shelter wherever we could at the nearest houses in town, we got wet, but it was fun. This is how I remember these soccer matches and the old soccer fields.

Talking about old Genzano town photos. 

In this article there will be several photos that we will paste in when we find them. Anyhow, let me show you an aerial photo: This first photo here shows you the oldest part of Genzano, which is very ancient and there are a few stories how this town was started. So, in my later articles there will be a story or two written how this town was started from people living nearby, perhaps in caves or other make shift dwellings; today there are a few theories that have been written recently, from local writers and one of these writers in this link, Scrittori e poeti, this link is for those that can read Italian as they are written in Italian, if the link works click on the writer Ettore Lorito he has written perhaps the real story about Genzano origin and why this town was called Genzano, so, my own explanation here-under may or may not be correct, however it is my point of view.

Anyhow, one must look at the history of the region to understand the way these old towns were built in the past, and from there, imagine the possibilities and write about them if you think you are close to the truth. See this link shown here; The town I came from, there are a few things and a few photos showing what we mean.

About Genzano and about me. 

Anyhow, as I have said, my name is Francesco Menchise born and grown in Genzano di Lucania and I migrated to Australia a long time ago, but I have never forgotten my native home town of Genzano, therefore, now I am writing the memories of my life and my home town. Now, since I am writing this article to talk about the town where I came from, I would appreciate if any of my countrymen that come across this article writes a comment, and anyone with a family name Menchise I would appreciate if they leave a comment, since there are reasons to believe that all people in the world with their family name Menchise are originally from the town of Genzano di Lucania.

In my life memories I will be writing several things about Genzano whenever the occasion arises, I will be writing all those hearsay and stories that went around town while I lived in Genzano when I was young. I am going to write about the most important events that happen in Genzano like this feast, (festa della Madonna) See photos. What I am going to say here can surprise even a modern Genzano person since things have changed a lot in the last 50 years or so, therefore, don’t be surprised if you learn something from me about my original hometown of Genzano di Lucania in these articles.

Homesick and some other stuff. 

We who migrated from our native hometowns, we will always feel home sick, so, we remember all those things that we have left behind, therefore, in Genzano there are good things to remember; but  I had to leave all those things behind when I migrated to Australia, anyhow I still keep them in my mind even today.

Now that I have talked to you about my native town of Genzano, let me tell you a bit more about myself and what I am going to write in Hub Pages, you see I have already published a few articles, where I am writing about my memories and other things as well; please click on the links below to view and read our articles:

An old man life story, A man life journey, My life my struggles

An old man story, Midway introduction life story, Our life observations, Wine making the old ways, Genzano Greek Chasm chapter, My farm life experience, 2, Genzano Greek chasm and Madonna story, My first farm life experience

My farm life chapter, 3, My farm life chapter, 4, My farm life chapter, 5

My farm life chapter, 6, Cheese making grandma way

Farming today compared to the old way, Making ricotta my grandma way

Genzano Cavallina twilight, Genzano is the town I came from, Genzano di Lucania history, Strage in Genzano di Lucania

These are some of the articles that I have written and published in this domain called Hub Pages.  

Genzano twin town

My dear readers and Genzano folks I have to say that while I was looking for Genzano di Lucania on the Internet, I have found on the Internet also Genzano di Roma, which is a larger town and seems to be important in art; but that does not matter, because it is not my native town.

Anyhow, I believe that I have said enough in this article, so, see you in our next article, Genzano di Lucania history 

To see more click on this link, Genzano di Lucania. 

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Farming the modern way.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, Farming today compared to the old way. 

Modern day farming is a lot easier than the past, look at this photo above a show off harvester machine. Now this photo is an just an exaggeration because it it too crowded with machines, and you need one or two machines in a field and other things. Anyhow this is how harvesting is done today, in the past it was a lot harder, as we are going to show you in this article. 

Welcome to our article, Farming today compared to the old way. 

Dear readers, this post will be a long post, so, I cannot upload the entire original article and most of the photos, if you want to see that click on the Hub Pages link,  Farming today compared to the old way. 

Anyhow, here we want to talk about farming today compared to the old ways, because I can mentally see the great difference that it has made in our standard of living. So, I believe that today we are better off than we were before; but let me see how I can describe this difference. Anyhow, I am writing about my life story, so, I mentally compare the ways of life of today to the ways of life in the past when I was young. 

Anyhow, we must acknowledge that this modern wheat farming in Australia, and in other parts of the world, it has slashed the present cost of living a lot, and this helps us to live a better life. We believe that this has happened because of the new farming machines available to the farmers, and the fertilizes available to them; so, farmers are able to produce wheat and other produce a lot cheaper than in the past, so, food has become cheaper, therefore, we are better off today in many ways.

In this article, we invite our readers to compare how different farming and farming life was at the time when I was young in the fifties, and also, how hard was life then because most of us had to work hard just to earn enough to feed ourselves and our families.

This difference that we are talking about applies to the farmers and the general public as well, because today it affects us in a beneficial way. So, there is a lot to be said about this great difference in cost and hardship, and this has happened during my life timelifetime. So, I believe that our standard of living has improved a lot, at least in the sense of being able to feed ourselves with wheat and other farm products, because the cost of farm products are more affordable today than in the past; so, let us compare the cost of living, and how much we have improved since then.

Today we often wonder how easy it is to grow and harvest wheat, at least it seems so when we look at a video that shows harvest time in the wheat farms, we see a few harvester machines in a field collect the wheat in no time at all, and because of this speed of these wonderful combine harvester machine food is a lot cheaper today than it used to be; of course these machines are only part of the machinery that helps the farmers produce the wheat, because there are many more machines required. So, let us talk about some other machinery that the farmers require.

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Some farmers' machinery. 

Now let us talk about the farmer’s machinery and the benefit that has come from them; of course, this is due to the industrial revolution that has started a long time ago. It seems to me that the farming sector has been one of the last communities that has benefited from the industrial revolution, anyhow, that doesn’t matter how it has worked out, because today we are better off, so, let us talk about these machines.

We can say that the most important machine in the farms is the tractor, as this machine can be used in all sorts of farming, in wheat farming the tractor is followed by the harvester machine and other devices to till the soil and to sow the seeds, and all these machines put together make farming a lot easier today, therefore, wheat can be produced a lot cheaper, this of course helps keep the price of bread and other wheat made products down, since wheat is the main food elements required in the western world to prepare food, therefore, this new way of farming helps a great deal just about everybody, since wheat is one of the main ingredients to make foods for us to eat, and we require lots of it.

Of course, there is more to say than just wheat farming, because there are many other things that the bloke on the land can produce, see this link here-under how Wikipedia explains farming.

Agriculture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear readers, now that we have talked about these farmer’s machines, let us talk about wheat farming and the great benefit that we get from it; we must be happy about what is happening because it is a good thing for all of us; so, we want to point out that there is a great difference in the ways of living, and we are a lot better off today than we were when I was young, so, let us compare some of the benefits that we have achieved, since today the farmers can use these farm machines that the industrial revolution has made for us.

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Let us compare these benefits. 

Now, let us compare the great difference between today and the past for comparison sake. When I wrote this article for the first time, in Australia there were a few places that a 600g loaf of bread costs you just one dollar, we know that this bread is sold at a very special price from these supermarket, in order to get the customers to the shop, but we wonder and we do not know how it can be done so cheap but they do it anyhow, this very low price of bread is possible only because the farmer can produce the wheat cheap for a start.

Then, because the wheat is cheap the price of bread can be cheap, the supermarkets make it even cheaper to attract customers, because the supermarkets have a price war to attract customers on bread and also on milk, so, we can buy a loaf of bread for one dollar and we can buy a two litre bottled milk for two dollars, that works out at one dollar per litre, again how they can do it I do not know, but they do it anyhow; so, there is plenty of cheap wholesome food around for us to enjoy, thanks to the farmers and the supermarkets. (We hope that this will last for a long time, but I have my doubts). Anyhow, I must point out that in the past, the price of bread and milk was a lot dear, in fact there have been times, when people were struggling to feed themselves. 

But even though bread and milk is cheap beyond compare, there are people that still complain about the cost of living today, I know that what I am talking about here are only a few items and a lot more are needed to live well. But for comparison’s sake let us show you how easily we can afford to buy bread and milk to day, you see today, while I am writing this article for the first time, most people on the government old age pension in Australia receive about 700 dollars per fortnight, which would be about 50 dollars per day, they can easily afford to buy bread and milk and other food items.

Now that we have said how easy it is to buy bread and other staple food today, let us see how things were done in the past. You see, when I was young things were a lot harder than today, for sure we could not buy bread and milk as easy as we buy them today, because to produce these things took a lot more physical work than today, therefore, they were more expensive, they were so because the way of producing them was different, in order to show you what we mean, we are going to describe how wheat farming was done at the time when I was young, and how hard it was for some people just to have something to eat, even if it was just a piece of bread and butter, bread and milk, or bread and tomatoes or other basic things that one could find in the fields if you were in the farms. Anyhow, let us compare the past with the present way of farming.

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Farming the old way.  

Dear readers, to compare how farming was at the time when I was young, we will write about the way of farm life of those times; we know that things have changed for the better since then, because of the tractor and new farming machinery that have come out since then, all due to the industrial revolution or progress; which we have experienced in the last hundred years or so, but when I was young there were a lot less advanced farming machine that could make farming easy, of course, the tractors were already there, but they were very expensive to buy for most of the small farmers, so, we had to do most things the old ways. Now let me tell you how life was in the farms of southern Italy in the early fifties.

It is a well-known fact that in those times and even now, there are two times during the year, when in the farms everybody is working hard and very long hours; one of this was sowing time and the other is harvest time, let us start with sowing times. When I was young the working day at sowing time would start two hours before dawn, because we had to make the horses, mules and other animals ready for working in the fields, we had to feed them and water them as well, it had to be done in such a way that everything should be made ready to go into the fields at daybreak.

At that time of the year in the morning it was very cold and there are lots of frosty days, so, in the morning the outside temperature could be around zero or below, it is very hard then to harness the horses to the plough as everything one touches is so cold; but then when one gets going it is not so bad, because walking in the fields holding the plough in one hand and guiding the horses with the other hand is hard work and it makes one warm. This type of hard work at sowing time goes on for about a month if the weather is good and perhaps it could be longer than a month. When the sowing is done then everything slows down again, but we had still to look after the farms’ animals and do other farming chores; see this article My farm life continues, where we describe what we did after sowing, and what we did during the winter time.

Now let us talk about harvest time, since this is the busiest time in the farms, because harvest time is when the farmers collect the fruits of their hard labor, so, there is no time to be wasted at harvest time, therefore, this was and is the most hectic time of the year for all the farmers, and it is a very worrying time too for the farmers, you see if something goes wrong all their work goes down the drain for the whole year, so to speak. 

Now let us say a few things about today farming, especially about wheat farming, because wheat is one of the most important produces that we need from farming. With wheat we make bread and pasta and other bakery products, therefore, it is the most important farm produce that we use. So, let us compare what is changed in wheat farming since I was young:

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Wheat harvest in the fifties.  

The following description is the way of wheat harvest time in the fifties. When I was young we had already a horse drawn harvester that was helping us, this early harvester was able to cut the wheat plants and tie them in bundles, so, we were already halfway down the track of progress, as this machine saved us a lot of work, because we did not have to harvest by hand, which is a very labor intensive job, as we are going to describe later in this article. Anyhow, at this time of the year everybody in the farm works hard and for very long hours, it is very hot and everything is very dry. We get up very early in the morning, we get the horses ready for working by feeding them and watering them, then we harness the horses and set them to pull the harvester, and off we go in the fields for another day of hard work, if everything goes well, we might be able to go over a ten-acre field just in one day with this harvester. The harvester needs two people to get it working, one drives the horses and another regulate the harvester, the harvester goes around the field and leaves these bundles of wheat or other cereal, whatever has been sown in the field. Now these bundles of wheat will be collected in hips around the field from other people as soon as possible, the hips of these bundles of wheat are made is such a way that if it rains the rain would run off easily, these hips of wheat will be collected later when we finish with the harvester, perhaps in a week or two, then we will go back to the fields with a cart to take everything on a special plot near the farmhouse, where the threshing machine will be hired and set.

When we collect and cart everything to the farm house, we work very long days, we get up before 4 am, but we have a break of two or three hours at lunchtime because it is too hot to do anything, then we go back to work and between real work and looking after the animals we finish at dusk around 8 pm, after that we only have to feed the horses: this sort of work goes on for more than a month and sometimes up to two months, with no breaks at all seven days a week. Everybody in the farm works to their maximum and they are very tired, they are also very worried about the possible fire hazard, and also of any thunderstorms at this time of the year, since anyone of these happenings can destroy the whole crop, and a whole year of hard work can go up in smoke. So, we are all working hard, and at the same time we are praying God and waiting for the threshing machine to come and finish our harvest.

When some famer did not have a lot of wheat to thresh, they could use a place in common with other farmers, so that, the threshing machine would not have to be set several times. The threshing machine that were around and we would hire together with other farmers came with a large crew, because it was a very large machine, it had a crew of about twenty people, it was a very interesting time when we were threshing our own wheat, oats, barley, etc. Because we were anxious to see how much wheat and other product we had made.

Anyhow, here I want to say that when one goes through these life experiences in the farm, one knows that farming life is hard; but since this is the only way to grow food to feed ourselves, we the farmers keep working in our farms to feed ourselves and the rest of the community.

So, we the farmers feel that it would be right if the rest of the community appreciates our efforts, so, they should be thanking us for all the hard work that we have done, after all, we are providing all those things that are necessary to make food for the rest of the community; but it does not happen that way, because even when we are working our guts out, and while we are doing that we are becoming dull, the rest of the community does not care and they label us as dull people; their attitude hurts us very much and we believe that we don’t deserve that; just because we are farm people, but we have done our part of hard work for our own benefit and for the benefit of the entire community. So, we the farmers feel hurt to say the least. 

Anyhow, this town people attitude as I have said above, plus some very lean years when we hardly could survive, and because we had only a small farm and it would have been hard to expand was one of the reasons why I left farming and migrated to Australia. But anyhow let us continue to describe how harvesting was done the very old way, so, that we can compare it to today’s living.

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Harvesting the very old way. 

Now, because we want to compare the very old ways of farming with today farming, we need to say how harvesting wheat was done before my times; here we need to say that I have witnessed the last part of this old practice when I was young. You see, when I was young we were already using a horse drawn harvester; but there were people that had some small holdings and we had one of these ourselves, it was in a place, where it was hard to go with the harvester, so, we had to use the old ways for harvesting our wheat for that small wheat field, because that was the only way. 

So, let me describe how harvesting was done in those old bygone days; at harvesting time strange as it may seem today, we could hire some specialized people that were good at using the sickle, these people usually went from town to town to do this seasonal harvesting job; we need also to explain that in Southern Italy because the terrain has different altitude the wheat reaches maturity at different times, this was helping these seasonal workers to have a longer span of work, now to compare those hard times with today times, I have to tell you that these workers were sleeping anywhere they could on a sack filled up with straws under a shelter if they could find one, as they could not afford anything else. In the morning they would get up early and wait in the town square hoping that somebody would hire them for the day.

Now let us say that we had a small plot about one acre and we could not use the harvester, because it was not possible to go there, we would hire four people and form a gang that could harvest one acre in one day and collect it in hips, that later would be taken on a cart to the farm house to be threshed one way or another.

In the old times anything that had grown in the field was collected, it needed to be collected for the people to survive, because the fields did not produce as much as they do today, because they could not be cultivated with our modern machines. You see, today we have the tractor to cultivate the fields and it does a better job than the horse drawn plough, we have many types of fertilizer to help us grow more wheat but let us go back to talk about very old harvesting times.

Wheat harvesting and threshing the very old time.  

Now I must say briefly how the older generations before my times used to thresh their harvests, to collect their produce. Now, let us suppose that it was a few bundles of wheat to be threshed one could even extract the wheat by hitting them with a stick, but let us say that we had a cartful, or many cartsful for that matter, then we had to use a different method, which is the way that most farm used in the very old times for centuries, before the threshing machine was invented, so, let me tell you how it was done.

I happen to know this procedure, because in the farms when I was young, we were still using this method with smaller crops, most likely broad beans, lentils, chickpeas, linseed, and other farm produce that were not meant to go through the wheat threshing machine. When we were doing this procedure of threshing these minor crops, the elder would always be telling us that this was the way that they used to collect their wheat as well and usually it took them a few months to collect all the season produce. So, now let me describe this to you, so that we can compare the difference.

In order to do this old threshing, first of all we needed to prepare a piece of ground that is very solid and smooth, this can be achieved by stripping the old dry grass on a piece of land that had a large clay content, then wet it with a little bit of water to make it compact; once that was ready we would place our wheat or whatever was to be threshed and collected on this clean ground, then we would get our horses mule and donkeys whatever animals were available and drive them around and around until everything was threshed. 

Now, once the threshing was done we had to separate the produce from the straw and any other foreign matter, this was achieved by removing the straws from the top layer making sure that no produce was left with the straws, at the same time we would collect the bottom layer in a hip, once that was done we would have to clean that produce by using the wind, to take away the finer parts that were still mixed with the wheat or whatever it was, and there were many other things that we could use to get this wheat clean, by the end of the day we could have collected two or three hundred kilograms of produce, and when we did that we thought that we had done well for a day work.

In the very ancient times was even worse, see what they were using in the Medieval Times, here is a link to check out some ancient farm tools including the Flail and Winnowing Basket used to collect and clean wheat.

Medieval Farm Tools

I hope that this gives the modern reader a view of how thing were done in the old times, so, I do not want to say much more about how all this threshing and cleaning of the wheat was done, because even writing about it is boring today. But then that was the only way to collect our wheat to make bread and other things to eat. Now, my dear reader’s do you see how hard was then even to collect wheat for ourselves, so that we could make bread and other cereal product.

So to the young people who think that today life is hard, let me describe to you what I have witnessed when I was young, because then life really was harder than today, you see those days everybody had to find how to earn enough to feed themselves there were no handover from the government. So, the very poor people of those days were trying to collect anything they could to feed themselves, as I have witnessed these things myself, so, let me describe this to you:

You see, at harvest time this is what I have witnessed, I have seen old and poor people mainly old ladies go around the fields and pick up any ear of wheat that was left behind in the fields, one ear of wheat here and another ear wheat there until they had the strength to go around, they did this each day until harvest time was over and there was nothing else to collect; and I tell you what these poor people were happy if in the end they had collected enough ears of wheat that they could thresh and clean themselves, perhaps they could have collected enough to make 50 to 100 kilos of wheat during harvest time and they were happy because, they could make bread from this wheat and not go hungry for a few months. Now I hope that you can see what I mean when I say that the youths of today don’t know anything about hard times.

Anyhow, I hope that today this abundance of cheap food lasts for a long time, because things can change in the future. Today the climatic change is the worrying part, because we don’t know how much it is going to affect the farms and our lives.  

I believe that this article is too long, so, see you in our next article, Genzano di Lucania. the town that I have come from. See you then. 

To see more click on this link, Farming today compared to the old way 

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