We would bring two apples, two eggs, and some potatoes from home. We would cook the eggs and potatoes in the dirty water of the basins, together with the cocoons. The potatoes, in particular, would smell of silkworms.
POTATOES AND SILKWORMS
The workers' menu
PFor lunch, the spinner- and brusher-women would use the boiling water in the basins to cook eggs and, above all, potatoes. The food, therefore, took on the “flavour” of the cocoons.
Credits: “La sogno ancora adesso la filanda”, intervista a Teresa Bertolino in Nuto Revelli, L’anello forte, Einaudi, Torino, 1985.