Agriculture in Tuscany and Valdichiana
Sharecropping according to a medieval model

Agriculture in Tuscany has evolved slowly. It wasn't until 1979 that the Italian government officially abandoned the in essence medieval method of agriculture known as sharecropping or mezzadria. By implementing this farming reform, Italy could start at a point Northern Europe had left behind itself decades earlier.

How exactly was this mezzadria system constructed? The padrone, or owner of the estate, contracted contadini, peasants, to cultivate his lands. In return for their work, they received fifty per cent of the profits made by the agricultural enterprise, the fattoria. At the end of the agricultural year a great feast was held, the tribbiatura, and on this occasion the produced grain was divided between the owner and the farmers.

The contadini worked under supervision of a foreman who received his orders directly from the padrone. The padrone usually lived in the city, visiting his lands only once in a while.

The eldest man of the family was the capoccio. He controlled the family's finances and he had the final say in family decisions. Marrying, for example, was unthinkable without his approval.

The padrone provided small houses with a piece of land attached for the farmers and their families to reside. The houses remained property of the padrone; only the household effects were the farmers'. The size of alloted land depended on the number of family members. Often more than twenty people lived in a single house.

Thirst-quencher

A peasant's family counted at least seven children, preferably boys, because they could help cultivate the land. Twelve year old boys were considered to be real men and brought into the production chain.

The families of the contadini almost exclusively used what they produced themselves: grain for food, silk for clothing. It is perhaps remarkable that in Tuscany a large part of the land was reserved for the growing of tobacco. Tobacco was not only used for smoking, it also served as an excellent thirst-quencher when chewed on.

There was a strict assignment of duties on the fattoria. Men performed the physically hardest chores such as cultivating the land. Women, however, carried the most responsibility. Besides looking after domestic affaires, such as bringing up the children and managing the kitchen, they were also expected to look after the farm animals.

After the second World War, many Italian families left the fattorie and went to the city. The composition of the families also changed drastically, and as a result the traditional image of the big patriarchal Italian family became a thing of the past.

Olive oil, the Tuscan life elixir
A hundred varieties to make your life run smoothly

Olive oil in Tuscany is like wine in France . The farmer treats his ‘Tuscan fluent gold' with the same care he handles his grapes. The result is that this olive oil is the best in the world, according to the proud Tuscans. Palmiro, a local olive peasant of Torrita shares the same opinion. The harvest wasn't one of the best, but the olive oil itself was of a fine quality. The result was an expensive oil.

Wild olives thrive in Tuscany but for the production of oil only the cultivated ones are used. In Tuscany there are hundreds of varieties. Three major groups can be distinguished: small olives to make oil from; medium olives that are picked unripe and green, or ripe black ones; olives without a characteristic taste that are fit for consumption and oil.

Lampante

Oil can be classified along its price, determined by its quality. The result of the first pressing of the olives is the vergine or the fine extra vergine. The last one has the highest quality and has a fruity flavour although the vergine is also of a fine grade. The lampante is chemically manipulated after the first pressing in order to refine the oil. You can find this lampante oil in an ordinary supermarket. This oil is usually gained mechanically, a cheaper way than by hand. This lampante oil can be used for cooking but is no guarantee for a culinary surplus value.

Like wine, olive oil is protected by DOC-labels to guarantee the quality of the different kinds of Tuscan oil. The oil is more sensitive than wine; it absorbs scents and for that reason it isn't preferable to preserve the oil close to garlic or onions. Within the year a great part of the taste of the oil gets lost and it turns rancid.

Spicy

Three major different kinds of tastes can be distinguished. The fruity oil has the caracteristic taste of the olive. The oil is derived from healthy and fresh fruit; in nose or mouth you'll become aware of the whole taste. The bitter tasting oil is distracted from green, not yet fully mature olives, that after the picking are cleaned with hot water. The spicy oil has no specific scent but a subtile flavour and a typical after-taste.

Each region has its own olive oil with its own specific taste. In Tuscany the oil is derived from green olives and it has a strong taste. The differences lie in the way how olives are cultivated, but also climate factors and the processing of olives play an important role. The olives endure night frost, but in heavy cold during the flourishing period, the butts freeze and part of the harvest gets lost and so the prizes raise.

An olive exists 15 to 30% out of oil, and contains a lot of vitamines and fatty acids. But how does the processing work? After the cleaning, they are processed from olive to paste/pulp in a pressing machine. Then, the water particles and the fat elements are parted from each other, so that only the sansa (olive pulp) and oil remains. The oil is classified, along its quality. The sansa is refined again to produce olio lampante.

Tasting olive oil
From bitter to sweet

From the taste of the oil you can deduct in which period, olive yard and earth the olives have been cultivated. Once you have tried real good oil and have learned to recognise and appreciate it, you'll want nothing else.

To taste the oil, take a little bit in your mouth. First let it rest a few seconds under your tongue. The oil only gets a really good taste if it's mixed with your saliva. Then you spread the oil through your mouth and let it rest under your tongue again. Then suck in air through the corners of your mouth to fully experience the aroma. Now you'll immediately taste the difference between a good and a bad oil.

The best way to recognise oil is to play a little game of associations. Just let your mind wander and soon you'll recognize the aroma as a smell or taste from your daily life. Immediately you'll know if you have good or bad oil in your mouth. For this, you don't need a practised tongue. Now swallow the oil to be able to make the difference between spicy and soft oil. Both are a sign of good quality, but it is important to know the difference when you want to cook with the oil: your meal can taste very different if the oil, which is the base of your dish, is not in harmony with the other ingredients.

The difference in taste goes back to the sort of olive that forms the base of the oil: a green olive gives a more bitter taste, whereas a black one tastes sweeter.