About tuica, the article calls it "plum brandy", and says people usually sip it. That sounds delicious! It reminds me of a popular home-made plum brandy in Czechia called Slivovice. I got it as a gift once, it was strong stuff. I loved the taste and smell of plums, and felt healthy and strong after a shot or two.
Aha I see it's actually popular in many countries.
> Slivovitz is produced in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, both commercially and privately. Primary producers include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. In the Balkans, slivovitz is considered a kind of rakia. In Hungary it is considered a kind of pálinka, but in Romania and Moldova it is considered pălincă, similar to țuică.
Ah, and my grandma was also selling home-made tuica [1] on the side, so that was some other money that was getting exchanged, but not daily.
When my grandparents needed help during harvesting season they were also "hiring" some local people, but in many of those cases there wasn't actual money involved, people were keeping tabs on "I've worked this number of days for you to help you out with the harvesting which means you owe me this number of days in return to help me out with my harvesting in return", or there was tuica bartering involved, see the above point.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C8%9Auic%C4%83