Artisans Basket Makers

My world of cooking has been always very close to the artisans world.
My nonna Marsilia still preparing the wickers for her baskets to sell to the open market during feast and town festival.
I love to use her basket as a furniture complement: for me they are so precious but I use it also for pour my favourite dried flowers as lavander or just to keep the daily grocery shopping as tomatoes. mushrooms and more.


The Willow tree produces the raw material for these baskets: the wicker.
It's a specie of tree that lives only in wet grounds, specially near rivers or creeks. Different branches of the tree are used for different parts of the basket. Stronger branches are used to build the stronger parts also, of the grape -gathering basket.Usually, the wickers are cutted in January, but if the artisan wants to peel the wickers, they must be cutted in April. The peeled wickers is a new technique used in grape-gathering basket with only a decorative function. Traditionally the basket were build with unpeeled wickers.