GRAPES AND OLIVES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 21, 16 April 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

GRAPES AND OLIVES

ITALY is a place of flowers, fruit and wine of warmth, sunshine and cloudless skies, and it is not surprising that the Italians are a merry, light-hearted, pleasure-loving people. The “pastorello,” or little shepherd boy, who tends his sheep or goats on the Roman Campagna, spends part of his day sleeping in the sun, while his charges nibble the scanty herbage, or amuses himself by playing wild music on a tin or wooden whistle. In the early morning he drives his flock to the nearest village, where the goats are milked in the street, the people bringing their jugs and cans for their supply; then back the animals go to the pasture, till the evening, when they return to tile village for a second milking. Most Italians are very handsome, with dark brown skins, black eyes and hair, and very white teeth. The peasants sing at their work, and though they have little money they are happy and contented, working in the vinej'ards and in the orange and olive groves. In the autumn they are busy in the chestnut groves, collecting the nuts. These they not only roast, but dry and grind into meal, which they mix with* rye to make bread.

The gathering of the grapes and olives are most important events. Sometimes an ox-cart bearing a huge barrel is used as a receptacle for the grapes, but usually they are emptied from the baskets into tall wooden tubs. The gathering stops at sunset, and after supper the juice is, trodden out with bare feet. It is a happy scene in the dark cellars, with lanterns flashing on the big vats, and the dark, merry faces of the lads who are stamping the grapes. In some places the presses are worked by water-power, sometimes by hand and sometimes by oxen, but the best wine has always been produced in the oldfashioned way. The olives are gathered later in the year. This is a much slower process, as they have to be picked berry by berry. After being carefully sorted, they are put into a mill and slowly crushed to a pulp under a big stone wheel, driven either by water-power or by oxen. The pulp is then put into another receptacle and placed under a press, the oil slowly trickling into a vat beneath, at the bottom of which lies water. When the vat is full, the contents are allowed to settle for a few days and the oil rises to the top. It is then drawn off into huge jars, much resembling those in the story of the Forty Thieves. Olive oil is used both in cooking and for lamps, and is considered a necessity by every Italian, even the poorest buying tiny quantities with which to cook their vegetables or fry their food. The peasants live very simply, eating little meat, but they are very fond of eggs and macaroni. Wine is cheap, and both rich and poor drink it at almost every meal.