My research concerns the issue of Fruttaroli at Venice in relation to the supermarket  

Posted by Isabella Loddo


 

The main difference is in the business, the fruitsellers acquire or produce and sell local products, the supermarket has a global business and may choose among different suppliers around the world. A supermarket can not buy in a wholesale vegetable market because it would require very high amounts compared to a simple store fruit and vegetables.

 
Although apparently identical fruits and vegetables may have different origins, even in products that we believe to be only local. Obviously the difference is  in the quality of the product for example to get a fair amount of oranges, at the supermarket agrees to buy navel oranges that come from China and the United States and marginally oranges tarocche that are more expensive but of quality because coming from Sicily or Spain.


A second difference is very important for people who work of Fruttarolo, is that this profession is very feel, the fruitseller want to show HIS products, he feels his own boat and his shop, and he care about having great products because these corresponds to his person. No worker in the supermarket has a role that they want to expose themselves, because nobody wanted to release his name or his picture, working in the supermarket or department 'world' fruit and vegetables is only a means to earn and live.


Especially the amount of hours is different, because the fruit Venetian works well 15 hours a day every day, and this part of the character has very deep historical origins that derived from the plague in 1348. An employee of the supermarket by law can work 6 hours per day in the morning or afternoon shifts.


The division of products for the fruit is very simple and related to provenance, and the aesthetics of the product, his shop or his boat must say 'quality' in the supermarket there is a much more complex and tied to psychology of the buyer that must follow a predetermined path and is induced to purchase provisions with graphics and attractive.


The buyer of the supermarket through routes and graphics should feel part of that system and will then receive a card for his purchases that allows him to feel in a club. The 'club' of fruitsellers has ancient origins, was created in 1424 the tablet of futtaroli as a group of arts and crafts, still is even though they are no longer politically well-protected.


In 400 the fruitsellers subsequently called for a party, because of a dispute settled by the Doge Michele Steno, where in August of each year brought a gift to the Doge of large baskets of melons. To date the evolution of this festival is that of San Pietro di Castello, at the end of June, in which each art brings a gift to the saint a basket of their products.

 
 Under Gabriel Bella shows a Venice, especially an Erberia different from what we see today.

 
 
  
These are comparable in terms of changes in a short time, from 1941 to present.





To better understand these changes it is necessary to talk with the grocers and the Venetians and whether the extinction of their profession is really tied to the supermarket. Mr. Tiozzo, for example, will close because no one wants to recognize its activities, the main reason is that job, handed down by his grandfather and father, and so asks for a corresponding amount, which is too expensive for the other grocers in Venice.
One of the grocers who wanted to acquire the business of Mr. Tiozzo is Mr. Pastrello. He is both a producer and seller of its customers are mostly Venetian, loves his job and he wants to have only top quality. Every morning he goes to the market of Tronchetto and if he do not find the best products is also prepared to go to Padua.
Mrs. Bobo worked at the Rialto market forever, she has her clients for years and is not concerned about the supermarkets, but for the fact that the Venetians are less and less, She points out to me that just three behind his fruit stand on their off.
I felt the need to leave a sign on one of those fruit stand empty. And I started talking to people to understand how many other fruitsellers blinds closed and the most striking case was pointed out to me the lady Fregolent.
Pointing to the fruitsellers closed in barbaria de le tole
I'm being pointed out that there are fruitsellers to which the work is going much better, such as Mr.Finotello and the fruttaroli of coldiretti that make a very competitive economy, from producer to consumer, it saves up to 30% on the same purchase in the supermarket, have a great attention is paid advertising, in fact for me it was very nice to have telephone contacts and email of Mr. Finotello.
It is a sale very close to the Venetian families and quite competitive with the supermarket, probably the future of fruitsellers is to move, and advertise their sale, an economist so directly saves on the cost of products as opposed to a supermarket.

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Venice’s fruitsellers  

Posted by Isabella Loddo

Venice’s greengrocers, or FRUTTIVENDOLI, are like a living calendar: their beautiful stands sign the passing of the months as the season change and they are stunning proof of people’s ability to cope with, and adapt to, their environment.
Unfortunately, many of Venice’s small grocery stores have disappeared, not always ousted by the supermarket phenomenon but instead, often victims of the city’s declining population and its ever-increasing tourist industry that caters more to visitors than residents.
The remaining FRUTTIVENDOLI still offer much local produce, usually identified by hand written signs saying SANT’ERASMO, CHIOGGIA, CAVALLINO or VIGNOLE, another place in the lagoon devoted to agriculture.

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A little pill of history on venician farmers  

Posted by Isabella Loddo






Archeological evidence shows that people have inhabited the lagoon since prehistoric times and its agricoltural history dates to a similarly distant past althrough information becomes more precise with Roman settlements, some 2,000 years ago. The Romans planted grapes and vegetables and continued the ancient practice of bringing flocks of sheep to graze there because its salty grass offers the sodium these animals need: still today, one occasionally sees a shepherd herding scores of them across the highway just outside venice to the shores of the lagoon.
The farming presently carried out in this area owes its origins to the ‘first’ Venetians, the inhabitants of the nearby mainland who fled such cities as Altino, Padua and Treviso when northern European tribes crossed over the alps and invaded them in the 5th century. These refugees found safety in the lagoon but they also found an environment very different from what they were used to.  The lagoon’s marshy ‘islands’ are barely above sea level; the tiderises and falls an average of 40 to 100 centimeters every twelve hours and high tides often cover the lowest areas, called BARENE.
The water is salty and the soil is sandy. Winter temperatures rarely go much below freezing but the bora, the fierce cold wind that blows from over the mountains to the north-east, can severly damage spring crops.
Whith time, however, the ‘islanders’ learned how to deal with these difficult conditions.
Their success, in wich the vast gardens of the lagoon’s once numerous monasteries and convents played an important part, resulted in a thriving agriculture and turned what initially were liabilities into benefits: the chilly winter temperatures are often moderated by gentling sea breezes, making it possible to produce very tender, often precocious vegetables known s PRIMIZIE, and the sandy soil and salty environment create a slightly bitter taste, higly prized, for example, in the tiny artichokes called CASTRAURE wich are a delicacy unique to the lagoon. There are three agricultural zones in the lagoon: Sant’Erasmo, Chioggia and Cavallino-Treporti. They all have a similar soil composition – sandy, with little humus, they are relatively close to each other and benefit from the warming effect that a large body of water has on temperature, but each one has a distinct micro-climate.
Cavallino-Treporti, just north and east of Venice, are closest to the sea and most exposed to the bora; severely hit by the terrible flood of 1966, today the agriculture is almost entirely a green-house one.
Chioggia, at the lagoon’s southern most tip, is also on the sea, but its farms are located on the interior, towards the west, and are thus less vulnerable to frigid north winds.
Sant’Erasmo is the most favored of the three, for it lies entirely within the lagoon; the waters’ thermal influence is greatest there and cavallino-Treporti help cushion it against the bora, which in the past was also blocked by the groves of Mediterranean sea-pine threes that once grew along the shore.
Much of venice’s production still comes from the farms in the lagoon, as it has for centuries, athough some changes have occurred: one of these involves transport. In the past, the farmers who got to the market at the Rialto first had the best chance of selling their crops and thus they would set off in the night, rowing or sailing across the lagoon by moonlight, sleeping in their boats, in order to arrive by dawn. They did this all year long, throught fog, wind and rain until the 1950’s, when motors began to replace oars and sails which sighificantly shortened the trip and reduced its dangers.
Other changes include the introduction, of heavy farm machinery, fertilizers, insecticides and irrigation, but perhaps the most profound ones have been the  development of large-scale ‘industrial’ agriculture and trucking, Italy’s membership in the European Economic Community and relatively recent growth of supermarkets, to wich Italians have benn more resistant than other Europeans. As a result, there is now a much greater variety of foods to choose from and the time of year no longer necessarily determines what these is to eat.

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ARCHIVIO LUCE Reparto Attualità: 1941 Venezia - vendita al minuto della frutta  

Posted by Isabella Loddo


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