18/08/2026
Yesterday, in Vimioso, Portugal, we met Rosa and Aníbal Delgado, who are keeping alive a craft at real risk of extinction.
Escrinhos are containers made from rye straw and the outer fibres of bramble canes. They were traditionally used across Trás-os-Montes to store grain, seeds, flour and bread.
The process is long and physically demanding. Aníbal gathers the brambles in winter, removes the thorns, splits the canes and scrapes away the pith. The remaining fibres are boiled to make them pliable. Rosa then stitches and tightly binds the coils of straw. The repetitive strain has caused her tendinitis. Each piece takes many hours to make and is rarely paid according to the labour it requires.
One detail reveals the extent of what has disappeared: Aníbal now has to sow rye specifically to obtain the straw. He does not even use the grain, because the local network of small mills capable of processing a harvest on this scale no longer exists.
In the 1960s, the district of Bragança produced around 25% of Portugal’s rye. It was also the country’s third-largest wheat-producing district. Portugal was not self-sufficient in cereals, yet in 1968 national production approached two million tonnes—far more than it produces today.
The abandonment of the grain fields dismantled an entire chain. The fields fed the pigeons; the dovecotes supplied meat and pombinho, a highly fertile manure that returned organic matter to the soil. As the grain fields vanished, so did mills, dovecotes, materials and knowledge.
Rosa and Aníbal continue to make escrinhos, baskets, boxes and fruit bowls of remarkable beauty and originality. To keep this craft alive, they must now reconstruct part of the agricultural world that once made it possible.
