Identikit and main features
This category includes some historical varieties of apples which have been cultivated for a very long time in the Cuneo valleys and which have been forgotten after the Second World War in favour of the American Golden and Red Delicious apples. The old varieties are rustica and suitable to the bottom-valley climate conditions. They require low-enviromental impact cultivation methods and similar to the bio. The most important types whiche have been recovered are: Buras, Carla, Contessa, Gambafina lunga and Gambafina piatta, Ravè verde and Runsè.
Area of production
The area of production includes the whole territory of the Cuneo valleys.
History
The apple cultivation, in Piedmont, has a very an ancient tradition that dates back to the Roman Empire, but is only in 1700, when some farmers, who crossed the Alps looking for a job, imported new seeds and cultivation methods from France that we see the birth of the Piedmontese fruit cultivation. At the beginning of the 20th century the apple cultivation spread mostly in the bottom-valleys and hilly areas, even if there it has begun to spread also in the plane of Cuneo. The natural tendency of this region is confirmed by the vast range of local varieties cultivated and by the recovering of those that risked to disappear.
