Apr 07, 2016
554
by Donata Marrazzo
The lemon trees that populate the Amalfi Coast harbor a world unto itself: below and above the verdant treetops, a small crowd of agile farmers move like acrobats. They leap lightly from one to the other chestnutwood stakes sustaining the terraced lemon groves overhanging the sea: from pruning time to harvest, it is all a tightrope dance.
In the fall, they bend the branches, two farmers at a time, one higher up, another below; they tie them up with willow twigs, then cover them with a net to shelter the trees from winter frost; after which, they reinforce the trellises. In spring, they start picking, by hand: this is farming as it was done two centuries ago.
Fonte: Italy24