Meet Adriana Biondi
Adriana Biondi was born near Montebuono in 1958. The first thing she recalls about her childhood diet is its simplicity. She does not remember ever seeing her parents go shopping, at least until she was about nine. Theirs was not merely a barter economy but a fully fledged subsistence system. In the countryside they were self-sufficient. They bought nothing, not even pillows: goose feathers were used to stuff cushions. Pig bristles were used to sew shoes, with twine waxed using beeswax. Even pig bones were kept, salted and used for cooking. Nothing was thrown away, and nothing was bought.
A rag-and-bone man from Onano would come by to collect scrap metal, walking from farm to farm with a jute sack. In exchange he would sometimes leave a plate or a tray, which for them was of real value.
Besides him there were two traders from Elmo: Pietro Burlandi and Iolando Santinami. Pietro travelled with a donkey. Adriana’s grandmother would give him eggs or ricotta, and he would reciprocate with sugar, salt or candles, and occasionally salt cod or anchovies. Iolando arrived by car. Adriana remembers the spaghetti he brought: very long, uncut strands wrapped in yellow paper, so long they protruded from the baskets. They were industrially produced and some neighbours bought them, but her family never did.
There was no coffee. Instead, barley was roasted and ground with a hand mill. Electricity arrived only in 1979, making candles essential. In the kitchen hung a gas lamp known as “the sock”: extremely thin and fragile. One opened the cylinder and lit it with matches. When the gas ran out, they were left in the dark and returned to candles.
Cooking was done over the fireplace or, later, on a wood-burning stove. There was a gas cooker, but it was rarely used.
Adriana in her dining room
Nine people lived in the house: Adriana’s grandparents; their two sons, her father and uncle, with their wives; Adriana; her younger brother; and a cousin. In the mornings they lit the range cooker or, when Adriana was very young, the fireplace, which never went out, not even in summer. A cauldron always hung above it, used in summer to heat water and in winter to prepare farinata, a type of polenta made from white corn.
There was a spring nearby, where they went with a cart, oxen and wooden barrels to collect drinking water. In summer Adriana spent her days by the river with her grandfather tending the cows, which could drink and graze freely. When they were thirsty, her grandfather dug a hole in the sand to collect clean water. When Adriana was four or five; they would leave in the afternoon and return after dark. She remembers her grandfather gathering willow branches by the river in summer, or broom with which he made baskets and repaired chairs. With the donkey they also went to wash clothes at the spring, near the vegetable garden. The women washed and laid the clothes to dry over brambles or hedges, staying there all day; meanwhile they tended the garden and ate freshly picked tomatoes, split open and sprinkled with salt.
Sheep from Adriana and Giorgio’s farm
Today one of Adriana’s favourite dishes is pici all’agliata, but as a child she could not stand it. When she saw her grandmother preparing it, the smell of garlic and the relentless labour involved irritated her. Her grandmother would start early in the morning, working large quantities of dough and covering the table with handmade pici. Adriana preferred bean soups with homemade bread.
The wheat they sowed was milled by a miller in Castell’Azzara. Whatever was left over after the milling was used as animal feed. Neighbours helped one another during sowing and built storage structures similar to hayricks to keep chaff for the animals. Life consisted of hard work.
Meat was eaten rarely, as there was no way to preserve it; if a lamb was slaughtered it had to be consumed within a few days. As sharecroppers, they could not simply decide to eat a lamb: they first had to ask the landowner, who, if he agreed, would still take half. Adriana perceived as unjust the fact that they did the work while the landowner collected his share, always taking the best produce.
Adriana’s mother made cheese and salted, aged ricotta, which Adriana loved. Her father, uncle, and her grandfather, kept accounts with the landowner, dividing expenses and produce. Although little remained, they considered themselves fortunate, as they were allowed to cultivate a garden and raise small animals without asking anything in return. They worked the land with oxen and plough. Adriana often did not see her mother for entire days: she rose at four in the morning and returned in the evening, after Adriana was already asleep. Adriana, her brother and cousin stayed at home with their grandmother.
Cooking fat was mainly pork lard, as olive oil was reserved for special occasions. Olive trees were few and planted on the most inaccessible slopes so as not to take land from crops, making the harvest arduous. Half the olives went to the landowner, and the pressing costs were paid for in oil. Very little remained. Harvesting did not begin until December and it was bitterly cold; sometimes it snowed. Adriana remembers being taken along to wait under the olive trees: a fire was lit, a wooden spit made, and pancetta sliced. She spent the day roasting and eating pancetta, suffering greatly from the cold.
Bread was baked at home once a week, at most twice. To use the oven, which was shared with another family, careful organisation was required. When bread was made, they also prepared pizza with potatoes or grapes, depending on the season. Her grandmother made pizza with uva fragola. That was a major celebration. It was made using a portion of the bread dough. Adriana recalls that during the grape harvest the finest bunches were hung in the cellar and eaten later with bread. Other fruit—apples, pears and figs—was dried. With dried figs her grandmother made a sweet: the figs were pounded to a paste with walnuts and anise, and the mixture pressed into adjustable wooden moulds similar to those used for cheese, then served in wedges.
As the eldest child, Adriana was always expected to help and began cooking with her grandmother at the age of seven. Later, with the arrival of electricity and running water, ways of life changed and managing the household became easier.
She also remembers evenings when her parents took her dancing at someone’s house. “At night you could see paraffin lamps moving through the darkness along the roads. We went from farm to farm to keep vigil; there was always someone with an accordion, and almost every week there was a celebration.” When she grew sleepy, they laid her on a jacket near the fireplace, waking her when it was time to walk home.
On Sundays they took half a day off, walking as far as Sovana. Barter still existed then, and the only money Adriana remembers seeing were the five-lira coins her parents gave her to buy an ice-cream cone after mass. In 1968 her father bought a motorcycle, and Adriana recalls that four of them would ride on it together.
Antonello's family pictures
Adriana in her workroom
Adriana and Giorgio married in 1984. For a time they lived with Giorgio’s parents, then built their own house. On Giorgio’s family farm they raised sheep, cows and oxen. Until 20 years ago milking was done by hand, taking around three hours; with an electric milking machine the work became quicker and less exhausting. Today they are still members of the Sorano dairy cooperative and run their farm with around 500 sheep.
Adriana enjoys cooking. From her mother-in-law she learned Sardinian cuisine, and in summer, when farm work eases, she makes pizza and fresh pasta. She still likes soups, and raises chickens with five hens for eggs, but her days are governed by work with the sheep. She wakes at five and by a quarter to six is already milking with her husband Giorgio. She has little free time. If she finds an hour to herself, she goes to her workroom—a ground-floor space with the range cooker, washing machine and sewing machine, and, outside by the garden, a wood-fired oven. Adriana has a passion for crochet, and whenever she has a little spare time she devotes it to one of her projects.
Although the times were hard, Adriana recalls them fondly and says she was happy. They taught her many things, and she is never at a loss. If electricity or water were to fail, she says, she would know what to do; she developed a certain resilience.
Detail of Adriana’s hands