The Cuneo area is one of the main honey producers, in fact here are produced different types of honey thanks to the good climate conditions. The most famous types are: acacia honey, dandelion honey, chestnut honey, mountain flowers honey, lime and honeydew.
Types
- Acacia honey: clear and fluid consistence. It is the most important honey produced in this region;
- lime tree honey: crystallised honey, delicate and sweet aroma;
- chestnut honey: dark colour, aromatic and perfumed;
- dandelion honey: intense colour, strong aroma and it is always crystallised;
- rhododendron honey: very clear colour, delicate aroma.
Among multi-floral honey varieties we can find the high-mountain multi-floral variety; it is very clear and a crystalline texture with interesting aromatic features.
Many alpine valley are specialised in the honey production:
- Pragelato: multi-flower honey, produced with mountain flowers;
- Val Grana: dandelion and chesntnut honey and multi-flower honey;
- Valli di Lanzo: chestnut, lime-tree, acacia, rhododendric honey;
- Val d’Ossola: lime-tree, chestnut acacia and rhododendric honey;
- Biella area: chesnut and acacia honey;
- Val Sangone: chesnut and multi-flower honey.
Area of production
The beekeeping and the honey production are so important in the Cuneo province, in particular in the Roero and in the mountain areas.
History
In Piedmont the “Associazione centrale d’incoraggiamento dell’Apicoltura in Italia” undertakes promotional initiatives mainly through agricultural committees, among those stand out Savigliano, Ivrea, Domodossola and Turin. This latter founded the “Turin Bee keeping society” in 1872; the association aim was to diffuse beekeeping practices in the neighbouring districts. The municipality of Montà (CN) bears testimony to the development of rational beekeeping with the “bee houses”, stonework structures built in 1700-1800 to host permanently bees. The ancient practice of moving the hives following the phenological cycle, was used already by Egyptians and Romans, respectively along the rivers of the Nile and Po. It had been considered a good method to increase the bees productivity until the last century. Unfortunately these method required many efforts concerning the transportation. We have seen also some examples of nomadic beekeeping in certain Alpine valleys such as the Sesia and Chisone valleys where , after exploiting the spring time blossoms of the lower valleys, the hives were then shifted on the backs of mules to higher altitudes during the summer months, thereby creating different productions. The data collected during the first national beekeeping survey indicate that at the beginning of the 30’s the phenomenon was still limited in relation to Piedmont, and that it mainly occurred in the province of Cuneo, where nomadic practices were undertaken between the plains and the Alpine valleys.
