pple trees have been grown in Val di Non, Trentino, for nine centuries. Ancient traces of their presence can still be found in Val di Non's toponymy. Places like Malè and Malosco derive their name from the Latin word "maletum," which means "the place of apples."
The presence of apple trees in this valley is thoroughly documented in historical sources like the "Carta di Regola di Cles" (1641), in pre-renaissance works of art, and in poems and odes in local dialect dedicated to apples as well as the valley’s other agricultural produce.
From the 1800s on, fruit farming became an increasingly important part of Val di Non's economy and local growers started winning international prizes in recognition of the quality of their produce. Val di Non apples owe their superior organoleptic qualities to the peculiarities of the rich soil, to the magnesium-rich dolomite rock formations that are characteristic of this territory, as well as to Val di Non's temperate continental-Alpine climate.
Thanks to the incessant activity of its growers, the ongoing pursuit of qualitative improvements and to the respect for the local environment, Val di Non apples have become the first Italian apple variety to receive the D.O.P. appellation.
