The Olive Mills of Vallebona

My Aunt Ine described to me the olive mills (defisi) present in Vallebona and its immediate surroundings during the 30s and 40s, up until just after World War II.

She identified as many as eight, three within the village and five in the surrounding countryside. The fifth was what my aunt referred to as "our mill" because it was managed by many families who lived in the surrounding countryside, and it was located at the bottom of the "Vi" valley, along the old path that led from Vallebona to Negi.

Every working day, this last mill was available, in turn, for each of the families who brought their olives to be milled (sfragne).

Then there were three mills within the village: that of Piè Mumbeo, located in the street of the "furni vegli" (the old ovens), (the climb that we all make to go from the Church to the Oratory), that of Lurensin, situated just above the Oratory, in Via Defisiu, outside of which the large stone grindstone is still visible today, and finally the third mill was in Piazza della Libertà (which was then called "la strada").

The mills outside the village were water-powered, which at that time was a precious source of energy! The olives were brought to the mill in jute sacks of 5 measures (carte). Since one measure is about 12.5 kg, each sack weighed approximately 63 kg and were carried by mules and, if necessary, on a man's back.

Once produced, the oil was carried home inside goat skin containers (uriu); (hence the Vallebona saying "Ti sei untu cume in uriu", to someone dirty with oily material).

These skins, once emptied into jars, were hung to dry with the mouth down and some olive twigs inside to separate the walls of the goat skin. At home, the oil was stored in jars and could be used within at least 2 years; to retrieve it, a "fiora", a large ladle similar to a pot, was used.

After 2 years, the oil loses much of its organoleptic qualities and becomes clear as water. In Aunt Ine's time, it was still used, only for frying, mixed with fresher oil, or it was used to make soap. Aunt remembers "Vergè a spiciota", who despite the nickname was a man, and who was very good at turning old oil into soap!

Aunt also remembers that back then they used "washed" oil, but only for frying. (I will talk about this oil in another article of mine).

In summer, the oil was also used as a sunscreen for the body, by emulsifying it with water.

Naturally, in times of scarcity, oil was an excellent trade item to obtain other products that were lacking in Vallebona: for example, Aunt remembers that in her time, with one liter of oil, one could exchange for 4 to 5 kilos of flour.

The olives were handpicked and the harvest generally began "ai Santi", and the first places to be harvested were the paths and mule tracks, to prevent passersby from crushing the precious berries.

The harvest continued under the trees, on mostly clean ground (where possible) with hoe strokes (making "aireli"), throughout the winter; then in March-April, the trees were beaten (aramà) to shake down the olives.

For handpicking the olives, two types of baskets were used: the large one held half a measure (about 2.5 kg), and the small one a quarter of a measure.

When beating the trees, everything would fall onto the white linen sheets: leaves, branches, suckers (sagate), and olives. Everything was gathered into sacks and the sorting (a serne) was done by hand in the cellars by candlelight, or directly in the fields, by throwing large handfuls from a distance against a white sheet; only the olives reached the sheet, the rest, being too light, stayed along the way.

A curiosity: in the hamlet of Negi there was a mill (and that makes nine!) "a sangue", that is, operated by a blindfolded donkey or mule, which walked around the "gumba", thus turning the grindstone. Poor thing!

And now a bitter observation: in the time of my Aunt Ine there were nine mills available to the people of Vallebona, there was no unemployment, life was cheerful, though hard. How many mills