Small billhooks (roncolini) were used on every farm for processing Iris Pallida, at least four per family.
They were used only for one month a year and were used to work the iris. Crafted by the local blacksmith from the finest steel available, they had a handle of chestnut or beech wood.
They were used to cut the rootlets from the rhizome (gallozzola) of the Iris Pallida (the Chianti iris). The thin, sharp blade allowed the rhizome to be peeled to obtain the “white” root, considered the most prized quality from this plant. The “black” root is simply sliced, still with the peel. Women, often in groups, carried out these long and meticulous operations. In some towns in the Florentine Chianti area, there were even teams of 30 or 40 who, under the command of the iris workers (giaggiolai), worked throughout September around the terracotta basins where the rhizomes floated in water to be washed from the field soil.
Processing Iris pallida was a lengthy procedure. For this reason, it involved the entire family and was a social activity.
In the Sienese Chianti region, the work was carried out by the peasant family, and the processed rhizomes were left to dry on reed mats in shady, breezy porticoes. Sold in Florence for export to France, they were a modest but useful source of income, and popular proverbs often included: <When you sell the iris… you buy the grain you need to make bread>.
In the 1950s, shortly after the war, even in Casalvento we had four small pruning hooks and terracotta basins for washing the iris roots. Today, processing is carried out using more modern and efficient methods.
As in the past, after producing the white and black iris, the root must be aged for at least four years. Only in that way they can develope the intense violet aroma characteristic of this plant.