The potential for traditional food and drink products in Eastern Europe: Fruit processing — especially brandy (“tuica”) distilling —in Romania
The traditional peasant way of life has involved the maximum use of local resources for subsistence with a surplus for commercial activity where local supplies and market conditions allow. In the Subcarpathian region of Romania fruit constitute a major resource and plums have been valued for their usefulness in supplying jam, dried fruit and brandy. The latter product (“tuica”) is still finding a considerable commercial outlet despite the competition from urban-based distilleries and from imported spirits. Despite the discouragement of distilling in rural areas under communism (especially in areas that were collectivised) there are good opportunities today in the context of farm diversification and pluriactivity which is crucial for the survival of small farms in the hill regions of the country. The paper outlines the ways in which plums may be valorised, examines the particular significance of plum brandy and considers the potential for future expansion.
Historical and contemporary aspects of pluriactivity in the Curvature Sub–Carpathians of Romania
This paper focuses on the Curvature Sub–Carpathians, especially with respect to Buzau County. The region as a whole has always been relatively well-settled and agriculture has usually been combined with a range of local industrial and handicraft employments. A study of traditional domestic activities brings out a close connection between specific natural resources and characteristic features of traditional peasant household work. The Prahova Valley has been particularly favoured on account of the oil industry and a major transport axis connecting Bucharest with Brasov via Ploiesti, but elsewhere industry did not spread extensively beyond the county centres (Buzau, Focsani, Pitesti and Targoviste) and their immediate environs such as Colibasi and Doicesti. During the present transition phase the rural population is struggling to survive by combining elements of the modern and traditional economies. The main rural centres are relatively well off while the outlying villages are experiencing severe poverty problems. Apart from brandy distilling, traditional rural industries are no longer viable, although alternative systems of pluriactivity are under discussion.
Unity Identity Text Self
Abstract Understanding the receptivity of literature, how one work admits many readers, begins with an analogy: unity is to text as identity is to self. Unity here means the way all a text’s features can be related through one central theme. Identity describes a person’s sameness within different behaviors as variations on one identity theme (Lichtenstein). To find unity or identity, however, the interpreter himself plays a behavioral variation on his identity theme. In interpreting, his identity re-creates itself as he shapes the text to match his characteristic defenses, fantasies, and coherences. Thus, what a poet says about fictional, political, or scientific texts expresses the same identity theme as the poems he writes. To understand reading, criticism, and any knowing or making in symbols, then, we need to let go the Cartesian craving for objectivity and accept the themes in ourselves with which we construe the world—including literary works.