The micro-climate of Venosta Valley, with its sunny days and cool, windy nights, ensures the slow ripening of fruit and grapes. The highest cultivation areas in the country sit at a altitude of more than 1000m. Formerly known as the ‘breadbasket of the Tyrol’, the pace of life in the Upper Venosta Valley has always been set by agriculture. Wheat was an important export product of these South Tyrolean "Highlands" and nowadays, with the rediscovery of the traditional local
Vinschger Paarl bread type together with the opening the
first whiskey distillery in Italy (PUNI), wheat cultivation has taken on a new lease of life.
The
Benedictine monks introduced the three field system in the Late Middle Ages and were the first to bake the light and popular “Vinschger Paarl”, a bread with fennel seeds, caraway, and other herbs.
Along with livestock farming, the high lands of the Resia Pass holiday area are also ideal for the growing of stone fruits and
mountain herbs. Here the herbs develop a unique, intense taste, and the fruit is especially sweet and firm. Natural livestock farming and Alpine dairy farming have also survived here until today. Natural milk products like butter, cheese, yogurt and curd cheese are made like in the old days – and
Venosta Valley cheese is widely prized for its taste.
The vast array of regional produce makes the Resia Pass holiday area the ideal place for a fine and natural way of life. On the
farm tours of the region’s individual farms and small producers, visitors gain insight into daily life on the farm and the products often can be sampled on site.