Cereals – a mainstay of the mountain diet
🍞 Why they mattered
Cereals played an important role in the diet of mountain dwellers – both for their nutritional value and for how well they keep.
🌱 Cultivation
Fields of oats, barley, wheat and buckwheat were grown.
🧑🌾 Land and labour
Plots were small and often on slopes; until around 1960, people worked like dedicated gardeners, and with great effort managed to transform the land to make it productive.
🛠️ Tools and techniques
Where possible, a mule-drawn plough was used to turn the soil and incorporate manure; otherwise the “magau”, a two-pronged hoe held by the handle with both hands. Once the ground was levelled, sowing was done by hand using the “broadcast” method.
🌾 Harvest
The harvesting period ran from late July through August.
🥣 Use of the grains
The grains were used for soups or milled to produce flour. Nothing went to waste – the finest part was for people, the rest for the animals.
Photo: © Mulino Cavanna