Hi Larry!
I just had to look this one up for the readers.
This tradition amongst valley folk has its origin in the ancient custom of farmers who would rest from a hard day's work "sleeping in the hay cut for the cows. This grass, apart from giving a creamy milk and eccellent butter, also relieved the exhaustion of a day's work in the fields and gave the farmers their strength back." But only in some areas in Trentino has this peasant custom been rationally exploited for an important therapeutical purpose. This has happened for example in the Viote valley, on Mount Bondone, where the grass is grown in abundance, specifically for the hay baths. The grass, which contains a very particular mix of aromatic plants and medicinals such as thyme, arnica, creeping cinquefoil, gentian and many others, is cut and gathered at dawn or late evening (in some cases it is gathered during the day, provided the hay is still damp with dew). It is then stored in large basins where it is left to ferment for a few day.
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