“Hanging Herring “
In the last century, in the poorer countryside, it was often customary to hang a herring from a lucerne (I have faithfully reproduced the one depicted by Van Gogh in the painting “The Potato Eaters”, similar and in many cases identical to the one found in our peasant houses), where family members would “swipe” – sparingly – a slice of bread, so as to vary a diet based almost exclusively on soups, porridge and polenta.
