ITALIANS
Italy has a climate much like that of California, which gives the people a long farming season, but in the hottest part of the summer, in Southern Italy, very little work is done during the middle of the day. Wheat, corn, and other cereals, vegetables, fruit, chickens, sheeps' and goats' milk constitute the food products of the farm. Some have a greater variety than others, depending on the ambition and aggressiveness of the farmer.
The Italians make their own cheese from goats' milk; they lay in a store of dried peppers and strings of garlic for the winter, and they make enough tomato paste to last during the season. Here and there one finds olives raised for family use. These are pickled, both ripe and green, and are used not only as a relish, but cooked with macaroni or, in Northern Italy, with corn meal.
The Italians who come to America are the peasants or land workers. They are heavily taxed at home, and almost no educational opportunities are provided for their children. Taxes are heavy, ready money is scarce, and saving is a slow process. The needs of the family are supplied from the farms direct, or by exchange with neighbors.
Italians may be divided into three groups: those from Northern Italy; those from Central Italy; and the sea-coast group—the Sicilians and those living on the shores of the Adriatic.
The northern group know as little about the foods of the central and seacoast groups as they do of their dialects, and vice versa.
18
