Steve Webel
When I was younger, my nonna and nonno would tell me so many stories about how they grew up in the mountains of Sicily. One of the first stories I ever remembered was the one about the Oranges.
During World War II, while Mussolini was combating his ideological opponents in Northern Italy, the people of Buccheri at the foot of Mt. Etna thought Mussolini was doing just fine. They were able to sleep with their doors open at night without a second thought to burglars, or so they said. There was no food, but it wasn’t Mussolini’s fault. After all, they were in a war. War is never anybody’s fault but the enemy’s.
The only crops that were able to be grown at that time were olives and oranges. Anything else required money that they didn’t have or resources that they couldn’t get a hold of. So what did they eat? Olives and oranges. One of the men in the town had an orange grove that was passed down in his family, and through war or peace, it produced the most beautiful oranges. So he ate them. Every day. For months. Even years. Till he actually turned orange.
I would laugh at this story, but I always wondered if it were true. Oranges, just like carrots and sweet potatoes, have carotenoids that make the food have its orange color. Believe it or not, eating too much of these foods can cause Carotenosis, in which your hands and feet really start to turn a yellowish-orange. How much do you have to eat in order to get that way? A LOT. So I guess Mussolini wasn’t doing his job that well. Having to eat oranges every day doesn’t sound like the ideal situation to be in…nevermind the agida that comes along with it.
Terms:
nonna – grandma
nonno – grandpa
agida – heartburn
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