This week back in 2001 we published an article which gradually over the last two decades has acquired much more significance as time has move on and memory of certain events and habits fade.
Twenty years ago on that day not many people would have noticed an old plastic fertiliser bag lying on the bench outside Aristodemo’s bar in Barga Vecchia.
It was actually a testament to one of the oldest forms of industry in this area and an interesting insight into the way that modern objects can be incorporated and mutatated by traditional methods.
The sack contained charcoal brought down from the mountain from one of the last families still making charcoal in this area. A centuries old practice once the mainstay of many families but now only kept alive by a few “old hands”
Charcoal is a light black residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen.
The sack of charcoal did not change hands for money but was bartered for some of Aristodemo’s famous sheep’s cheese.
Have a closer look at the way the sack had been closed. Three sticks were bent and pushed through the plastic to keep everything inside. Simple but effective. This was the traditional method of sealing sacks but it also carried with it another story; a story which involved sleight of hand and false accounting.
The charcoal burners were paid by weight of their sacks of charcoal. They too had a kind of “millers gold thumb” method for making a little extra with their business.
The sacks would be weighed and the weight written on one of the three sticks used for closing the bag. A portion of the bark would be scraped away and the number written on the fresh clean white wood.
The trick was to remove some of the charcoal after it had been weighed and to write another figure on one of the other sticks which showed the now lesser weight.
The stick would be covered up by their hand and the stick with the higher figure would be shown to the tallyman. If they were challenged, the hand would be moved to uncover the real weight and cover up the false one.
