Discover the forest

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION “…and around Casale WOODS AND JOBS” conceived by Paola Leoncini e Guido Verniani – photographs by Alfredo Lunghini

Exhibition set up on the occasion of 2009 mushrooms feast

THE WOOD AROUND CASALE DI PARI

Once the wood in high Maremma was the the protagonist of economic and social life. It supplied brushwood and food for people and animals and it was the hideway of wild animals which were hunted and integrated the meagre meals. From XVII century around the village there is the “Bandita of Ornate”, a wide wood still belonging to the descendants of the eleven families who founded Casal di Pari. Ulisse Rustichini guided us to know the history of the wood and the many problems to keep it for next people. The show and these pages are also a homage to his passion and his work.

THE EXTRACTION AND THE WORKMANSHIP OF “CIOCCO” TO MAKE PIPES : THE REBIRTH OF AN ANCIENT ART

One of the activities connected to the wood is the extraction of the “ciocco” to make pipes. Many years ago, before the first world war, many people at Casal di Pari practised this work. They also made pipe outlines and boiled them. They sold the autlines in Italy and abroad. This work, left for many years, was recovered about twenty years ago and to day Casale (with Manno factory) is an excellence centre. The extraction of the “ciocco” is a dangerous, tiring and difficult work; to make pipe outlines is a great art.

The “ciocco” , extracted from briar, is a round wooden mass emerging from the ground and placed between the root and the trunk. Italian “ciocco” (from Sardinia, Liguria, Calabria and Tuscany) is considered very good. Briar grows up in hill areas preferring silicon grounds: the silicon makes “ciocco” fireproof.

The “ciocco” must grow up 30 years to reach the minimum size. To extract it you cut the tree and next tree will be ready after 30 years.

After the extraction the “ciocco” is cleaned (the workmen remove the roots, the earth and the stones) and put it in damp warehouses.

Then the workmen cut it with a circular saw. This is a dangerous, difficult and artistic handwork.

After the pipe outlines are boiled 12/15 hours in a large copper boiler to eliminate the tannin and to make a better colour.

Then they are dried indoors and put to season into jute sacks.

Many tanks to Ulisse Rustichini (our guide to explore the wood around Casale), Adolfo Emanuele (the workman who extracts the “ciocco”), Domenico Manno (the owner of the pipe outlines factory), Filippo, Girolamo, Giuseppe and Vasile (the workmen who create the pipe outlines)