Vito Gandolfo Museum

The cultivation of wheat was extensive. Large tracts of land (called latifundi, devoid of houses, water, and trees) were divided into three parts: the first left for grazing, the second cultivated with fava beans, and the third with wheat. Every three years, crop rotation took place. The wheat production cycle occupied the entire calendar year and consisted of several main phases: plowing (September-October), sowing (November-December), hoeing (March-April), harvesting (June), and threshing (July). In September, the fields were plowed to prepare the soil for sowing. Starting from a corner of the plot, the soil was furrowed with a plow with a metal blade (chiòvu) — a wooden tool with an iron blade, drawn by a pair of oxen (aràtu a dui) — but in Sambuca, mules were predominantly used — held together by a yoke (juvu): a shaped wooden beam placed on the backs of the two animals and connected to the plow by another wooden beam (the percia). Special saddles (siddunèdda) were used to prevent the animals' skin from wearing out. To guide the mules or oxen in the desired direction and pace, the laborer or farmer used two ropes, each tied on one side to the halter (capizzòne) of one of the animals and on the other to the handle (manùzza) of the plow. Plowing "a dui" required collaboration between the land workers, who would lend each other the draft animal. Alternatively, a shear plow (aràtu a scocca), entirely made of iron, was used, with the animal yoked to it. Creating furrows during plowing helped to break up (dissodare) the top layer of soil, exposing it to sunlight, wind, and rain, which decomposed the stubble, increasing the soil's fertility. After the first autumn rains, the soil was plowed a second time (rifùnniri). In late November, the sowing of durum wheat (russellu or capitu) took place. If autumn rains were abundant and it was necessary to wait a few weeks for the soil conditions to improve, a type of soft wheat, tumminìa, which required a shorter cycle, was sown instead. The wheat to be sown (seed or semenza) was selected and cleaned, disinfected with copper sulfate (cilestra) to combat a black fungus (mascaredda) that infested newly sprouted ears, pulverizing them. Wheat was sown in furrows (sulicu) — where the sower would scatter the wheat along the furrow opened by the plow, and the plowman would return to close the furrow already sown — or by broadcasting (broscia) or scattering (spaglio) — where the sower walked along the furrows with a coffa (a rough container made of plant fiber) containing the seed, and with a broad sweeping motion of the arm, scattered the seeds over a well-defined strip of plowed land marked by aligned reeds. Behind him, the plowman closed the furrows just sown, while another laborer, with a hoe (zappùni), covered the exposed grains with soil. In winter, hoeing or weeding took place: with a small hoe (zappudda), three rounds of soil cleaning were done, uprooting weeds and selecting the ears, discarding the spurious ones (including darnel, which made the flour poisonous). In June, the harvest of durum wheat (russello or capito) took place. Soft wheat (tumminìa) was also harvested in July. The reapers (li metitùra) gathered in the fields at dawn, organized into teams (chiurma), and worked their way up the plot against the wind (in the opposite direction to the bend of the wheat stalks). They used a sickle (fàuci) with a serrated blade and a wooden handle, a chest protector (falàri) of horsehair to protect against cuts, an arm guard (mànica) of horsehair on the arm, and cane thimbles (cannèddi) to protect their fingers. Each reaper, with his left hand, grabbed a handful of ears by the stem and cut them with the sickle (fàuci) in his right hand. Each small bundle of ears, tied with one ear, was laid on the ground; another reaper placed another small bundle upside down on it to form a sheaf (ermìta). The small bundles, collected ten by ten with a special iron hook (ancinèddu) by the binder (liatùri) following the reapers and placed against a wooden fork (ancìna), were arranged on a tie (liàma) already laid on the ground and tied (‘nfasciàti) to form a sheaf (gregna). The sheaves made during the workday were piled up (‘ncavaddàvanu) and, after a week of curing, were transported (stravuliàti) on the backs of mules to the threshing floor (aria): a circular area of land, cleaned, wetted, and covered with straw, exposed to the north wind, prepared for threshing. Inside the threshing floor, the unbound sheaves were spread out early in the morning. By late morning, when the sun had dried the scattered ears, turned several times with a wooden fork (tradènta), the threshing began (cacciàri): guided by the farmer, pairs of mules walked in a circular motion, trampling the ears with their hooves while other workers turned the ears with the fork (tradènte) to separate the wheat grains from the ears. After two hours of threshing, the animals were fed and watered and allowed to rest while the workers turned the ears (vutàri l’aria). Then the threshing (cacciate) resumed. Following this, winnowing took place — with the fork, the mixture of wheat and straw was thrown into the air so the wind would blow the straw away from the threshing floor — and other cleaning operations (annittàri) were carried out. With a wooden shovel (paliàva), the wheat was selected, discarding the larger, unthreshed ears (pisatìna), and then the wheat was sifted (cirnitùra) to clean it of impurities: the worker, collecting the wheat from the ground in a container (coffa) placed on his head, poured it into the sieve (crivu passatùri) with tight mesh, suspended with a rope from the top of a tripod made of three long ferula (ferla) pieces to achieve another winnowing that separated the wheat from the last impurities. The harvest, divided according to the conditions established in the lease agreement, was taken to the warehouse in horsehair sacks, while the straw, a byproduct of the process, was transported to the warehouses (paglialòra) in rope containers (ritùna) placed on the mules' packsaddles. The wheat was stored in large cylindrical containers made of woven cane (cannìzzi) and milled (macinàtu) little by little, considering the family's flour consumption. In Sambuca, home baking was widespread until the 1950s: women baked bread at home once a week for the whole family. The housewife, extracting the flour from the horsehair sack, measured it with the munnèddu or quartiglia (cylindrical wooden objects) and placed it on the scanatùri (a square beechwood board) or, if the quantity was considerable, on the kneading trough (sbria): a wooden board with side edges. The flour was piled on the scanatùri: creating a small crater (conca) in the center, the housewife poured hot water, salt, and yeast (criscènti): a piece of raw dough already fermented, preserved from the last baking in a terracotta cup to be used as yeast later. Then, she kneaded with her bare hands until all the flour was absorbed. If the dough was substantial, she used the sbriùni: a large stick to mix the flour and ingredients placed on the kneading trough (sbria). The mixture, combined, solidified, and moistened with oil, was cut into pieces of about one kilogram each, shaped with the palm of the hand to give it the forms of bread (‘npanatu), pressed on layers of sesame (giuggiulèna) wrapped in wool cloths to keep it warm and accelerate fermentation, and placed on shelves (mittìa lu pani a lu lettu). When the dough began to crack and the fermentation was complete, the loaves were placed in the wood-fired oven, which had meanwhile been heated (camiàtu). For various types of pasta, a mixture of flour, water, and salt, without yeast, was used. Once combined, it was rolled out on the scanatùri with a rolling pin (sagnatùri), cut into thin strips (tagliarìni), or put through a press (manganèddu), where the disk (piattu di manganèddu) was used to make different pasta shapes according to the desired format.