My farm life continued
Welcome to our page 27,
article (11), my farm life continues chapter
A large farm building with cows grazing in the paddock, life in the farms seems to continually be the same day after day, it only changes slowly as the four seasons change, the ways of life in the farms is usually peaceful but boring. |
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My farm life continued
Dear readers, if
you have been following us, you know that in our last article, we were telling
you how bad I have felt during my entire life, because of the life that I had
to live in the farm when I was very young, and for that reason I wrote an
entire article to explain my situation, in that article that I wrote I have
tried to break away from the pains that were in my heart, with the intention of
turning those negative events of my life into a positive way of thinking; we
have done that in our last article that we called, turn negative into positive,
or Hello my world; I believe that just because I have done that I feel a bit
better, and I also hope that slowly I am going to be able to ignore that
painful part of my life.
Now that I have
done that let me tell you more about my farm life when I was young, just for
the record, because I believe that there is something that I have not told you
yet and also because by telling you my entire life story, I might feel better
knowing that somebody else knows my life story: However, I don’t know how you
my readers will feel about my life story, since it does not say anything
important or useful to you my readers that you can use in your lives, except
perhaps you might compare my somehow sad life story with your own life story.
Anyhow, let me
review what I have done during my whole life starting from my first job in the
farm with the intention of telling you the whole story of my life, of course I
know that I have already told you some of my life story, but nevertheless I
would like to tell you what I believe I have not told you yet, and if it
happens that what I am going to write next you know already, then I would like
to explain the reasons why I am writing my life story now, in a language that
is not my mother tongue which happen to be Italian, but I am writing it in the
English language, which I had to learn as a grown up, just because I migrated
to Australia, so, English is my second language and for that reason it is
harder for me to write my life story.
Anyhow let me go
back to my life story; you see, I feel that I might be one of the few people
left in the world that is willing to tell you this story of my life, I would
like to tell you this story about how the world was then when I was young and
what we did, so that a record could be kept even if it is going to be just a
simple record of my own life and some of the things I experienced. What I would
like to say here is that everything is changing so fast these days, but people
don’t take the time to record those changes that occur, for this reason the old
ways of life will soon be lost, because nobody is writing about them at all,
but I believe that it is good to know how we used to live in the past, perhaps
just to compare the past with the present ways of life. Speaking for myself I
could easily compare the ways of life that I have lived myself, to the ways of
life that my forbears were telling me and then to the ways of life that we are
living today, which I have to say that they are changing all the time, hopefully
for better times to come for us all; you see I believe that overall our
standard of life is improving, as I am going to point out in one of our
articles that we are going to call, farming today compared to the old ways,
here under is the link to check it out; Farming today compared to the old way
Anyhow, I believe
that if I continue to write about my farm life including some of the old
practice that the old people used then, we would be able to compare them
easily, even if some of those ways of life may seem strange or archaic to you
today, it would still be a record of how people used to live then in their
simple farm lives and the ways that I have seen it happen, so, I hope you are
willing to follow me in my life journey that I will continue to write here,
starting with my first job in the farm.
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My first job on the farm
MY FIRST JOB IN THE
FARM
Dear readers, I
suppose that you would be wondering what a youth could do in the farm at the
tender age of nearly eleven years old. Now, since I told you how young I was
then, I want to say here also, do not feel sorry for me for having lived my
early life in the farm, because in those times it was the normal way of life
that people used to live, and anyhow I was working in our family farm and not
in a stranger farm, so it was not as bad as it sounds. For comparison sake I
want to point out that even today there are people that are worse off than I
was then; you see in the poor countries even today they not only start to work
early in life, with a boss that pushes them to do more; but they also go hungry
and thirsty, so think about them and if any of you/us are in a position that
can help, then try to help them in any ways possible for the good of those
youths future life, sometimes even shaming those people that use this sort of
slavery might help; you see to feel sorry for me now is useless because nothing
can be done as it is in the past, but anyhow let me tell you my life story and
about my first job in the farm.
When I went to work
in our small family farm in Southern Italy as a youth, I was going to turn
eleven that year and the first job that I did was looking after a small flock of
sheep, which included also a ram and a couple of goats; I had to do that job
because the lad that my family had hired to look after the sheep left us
suddenly, so I had to replace him for a few months until we were able to sell
the small flock of sheep. It was a very boring job to take the sheep out of the
sheep-pen and into the fields to graze twice a day, I had to mind them that
they would not graze in fields that didn’t belong to us, or fields which there
was a crop still growing, I had to take them out early in the morning and then
in the afternoon for a few hours each time, because this is how the sheep are
grazed over there in summer times. Then when the town’s Fair was held we were
able to sell the small herd of sheep, we had to sell them because it would cost
us more to hire a youth to look after them than what we could earn from keeping
them. Anyhow even though we sold our sheep I had to continue to stay in the
farm helping with the other farm animals.
In order to be able
to tell you what we did in the farms of those days, so that you can have a
better idea what sort of life I had to live in the farm when I was young, I
will start by trying to describe to you how a day in the farm was spend doing
those farm chores, that seem endless since they are repeated every day. Now to
make it easier for me to tell you, I am going to start with those days when
there was not much to do in the farm, because the hard work in the fields had
already been done and all we had to do is look after the farm animals.
So let me tell you
first of all, about a day in wintertime when all the main works of sowing had
been done, and we were so to speak resting and waiting for better weather and
longer days. Those were the days which we were just looking after the farms
animals, and we also did some odd jobs around the farm, so, even in those days
there were lots of things to do in the farm, but I am not going to tell you
everything here, just because it would be complicated and I would like to keep
this part as simple as possible; so let me describe to you a winter day in the
farm.
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Winter days in the farm
This is how life
was in the farms of Southern Italy in the early fifties; in the morning we
would get up early usually just before dawn, as the days are short in winter,
they are about 8 to 9 hours of sun light; so, as soon as we got up we would
start doing our usual chores, we would start by feeding the horses and other
farms animals, and we would also be grooming those animals, and at the same
time we had to clean the stables as well, virtually we would collect all the
manure that the horses and the other stable animals had made during the night
before, we would load it on a strange devise like a field stretcher made of
timber and wire, and then two of us would lift it and carry it to the manure
heap, which was outside about 20 meters or so away from the building, at the
same time we would still be grooming the horses with a hand brush, and at the
same time we would continue to feed the horses and other farm animals, such as
cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals with fresh serving of straw, oats, hay,
grain, and whatever else was needed according to the animal’s needs, and
sometimes according to the tusks that those animals were supposed to do during
the day, because if the horses were going to do some work, we would give them
more oats than normally did, when they would be staying in the stable the
entire day.
Once we had
finished grooming the horses and cleaning all manure from the stable, the
chicken coop, the pig stay, sweep the floors and everywhere else; then one of
us would go to the well with a couple of buckets or other containers, so that
we could bring some clean fresh water for the small animals to drink, and also
for ourselves to drink and to wash our hands and face, and everyday even if it
was very cold we used to wash our hands and face outside the building: Here I
can assure you that this was the main hygiene that could be had in the farm
each day, and this was the only time and place where we used to clean
ourselves; at any other time when we got our hands dirty, we had to find a way
how to clean ourselves with anything available around us; I know that for
anybody that is used to tap water sounds terrible, but it was not that bad
because sometimes in winter time there are several small creeks around the
fields, where you could easily wash your hands.
Anyhow, by the time
we had done all these chores, it would be time for the horse and the cows to be
taken to the well to water them, (the horses and other large animals were
watered only twice a day in wintertime)
and of course we had to stand on the well head in order to draw water with a
bucket attached to a rope, we had to let the bucket down the well, and then with
a flick of the rope we would make the bucket turn upside-down to fill itself,
and then we would pull the bucket up the well and empty it into the trough; we
had to draw as many buckets of water as they were needed until all the animals
would not drink anymore; and now that I think about it, it really was a hard
and dangerous job for a youth of my age, but then because it was normal to do
it, we never thought that it could be dangerous.
After we had done
all those chores as I have said above, it would have been time to eat
something, so we would sit down on some sort of wooden stools that most time we
had made ourselves to have breakfast. Breakfast was usually brought in from
town, from one of us or one of our neighbours, there was always somebody on horseback
that would go to town the evening before, and then would bring prepared food in
the morning. Breakfast would usually consist of a few fried dry capsicums and a
few olives, and at the best one or two small pieces of sausage, or something
similar which my mother would have fried in the early hours of that morning,
and then placed it in a saucepan with a few drops of fried oil at the bottom,
we set around a larger wooden stool which acted like a table, and with a slice
of bread in one hand and a fork or knife in the other hand, we would try to eat
our small share of breakfast from the saucepan with as much bread as possible,
as there was plenty of bread of very good nutritional quality, but not much of
everything else. At lunch or dinner time we would have something similar to
eat, as we did at breakfast and in the evenings we had to do our own cooking,
so, I am going to describe here how we used to prepare a warm quick and very
simple meal.
How to prepare cooked bread
How to prepare a quick meal called cooked bread
This might sound
strange that we prepare cooked bread, but in the farms we did; but it was
called with the Italian farmer’s name “panecotto” anyhow, let us talk about
this quick meal called panecotto that we used to prepare in the farms and why.
We all know that
specially when it is cold, we need to eat at least one good warm filling meal
every day in order to stay healthy and strong, especially if we have worked
during the day, so, in the evening we had usually a large warm meal that we had
to cook ourselves, sometimes we would cook pasta which could be bought from the
shop or homemade pasta, but usually we made a quick meal called ‘panecotto’
which was just cooked bread; to you this may seem strange that we cooked bread
a second time for our main meal, but then over there it was the simplest meal
to cook in the farms and very filling, therefore after a cold and long day of
activities this very simple meal was very welcome, and it was also very easy to
prepare:
In order to prepare
this ‘panecotto’ all that was needed was a fire, which we usually had in the
farm chimney going or we would light one easily to keep us warm and to cook,
you see in the farms to light a fire is very easy, because there is so much dry
straws around in the mangers of the horse or other farm animals; so all we had
to do is grab a bundle of this straws put it in the chimney and light it with a
match, then we could add wood to it and you have a fire. Anyhow, to cook this
meal called ’panecotto’ we had to make this fire more lively to boil some
water, sometimes we would add to this boiling water some vegetable as they were
available in the farm, or some slices of potatoes, since we would grow our own
in the farm, at least for our own family needs; then when these vegetables or
potatoes were nearly cooked, we would throw in this boiling water as many slice
of durum wheat bread as required, and in a minute or so we would drain the
water out of the saucepan; now let me tell you that this sort of panecotto
works well only if you use bread made from durum wheat, because the durum wheat
is like the past, you see the best pasta is made from durum wheat, anyhow over
there in those times we did not need to look for durum wheat bread, because all
the bread that we were eating in the farm was made from durum wheat; anyhow
once we had this durum wheat bread in the saucepan on a lively fire, in a
minute or so we would drain all the water out of the saucepan, at the same time
while we were cooking the bread, we would also fry a small amount of olive oil
in a frypan with garlic and pepper or tomatoes and when this was ready we would
pour it on the cooked and drained bread, or cooked bead and vegetable and that
was all that was required, at this stage the ‘panecotto’ would be ready to be
eaten, from a large plate and sometimes even from the saucepan itself,
depending on how well we were organized in the farm, and how many people had to
eat this meal.
Anyhow this was
just one way, of how to prepare a quick warm meal in the farm in those days; of
course there were other ways but this was to most popular one, since we usually
had everything there already and was easy to make. Now let us continue about
what else we did in the farms.
Some farm work in winter time
Anyhow, now let me
go back to breakfast, after breakfast weather permitting we would have to do
some minor jobs, like hoeing in the kitchen garden, which was about half an
acre of land, or working in the vineyard, or going out to cut and collect firewood for ourselves, and
also for our families in town, as they depended on us for their wood supply, in
order to cook their meals including our meals and keep themselves warm, because
in the town in those times there was nothing to burn, it all had to come from
the country, so we had to supply the wood to them in order to keep warm and
prepare meals for themselves and us.
Now, I would like
to point this out to you, because today most of us might think that what I have
said sounds crazy, but in those days that was the way of life that most people
had to live, they had to look after each other’s, so from the country side we
would supply our produce and fire wood to the town, and from the town we would
receive back whatever we needed and they could give us, it worked out all right
both ways; anyhow let me go back to tell the farm work that we did.
During the day we
would still feed the animals every now and then, and bring in the stable new
straw and hay for the following night.
This is how life in
the farm was in winter times, when the days were short and the weather was cold
and wet.
But when the days
became longer and the weather was fine, there was work to be done in the fields
even if it was winter. We would have to get up earlier then, in order to feed
the horses and get them ready for the tasks that they had to do: it could be
just that we had to plough a field or something similar, but in order to do
that we had to harness the horses and attach them with their harnesses to the
appropriate devices; all this had to be done early enough in the morning even
if it was very cold, so that some work could be done during the short winter
days in the fields.
Apart what I have
already said above, there were also other chores which had to be done in the
farm in wintertime, like pruning and hoeing the vineyard, planting trees,
pruning fruit and olives trees, cutting and collecting wood, and many other
small jobs, so everyday there was always plenty to do.
But even though in
wintertime we were busy in the farm, wintertime was very dreadful and sad
especially for young people, because we were more isolated than at any other
time of the year, and therefore it was very boring and it was very easy for one
to become dull, therefore if we young people became dull it was due to this
harsh environment, at other times of the year it would always be a bit better
as there was more contact with the town’s community, and also because there
were some important happenings to talk about, even if it would be in a
restricted way, because in the farm we would still feel isolated, and we were
isolated, but to a less extend, so we were happy to see springtime coming. So
in our next hub we will talk about, springtime in the farms and what happens
there. Of course what I am going to describe in our next article it is how a
young man sees these happenings, so, see you next time with our article,
springtime in the farms.
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