The Beginning

I have been posting a bunch of hap hazard stuff on this blog and have recently realized I have missed a great opportunity to explain what is the whole hub-bub about with this truffle thing. To start with I am not talking about chocolate, I am talking about a fungi. A very special and tasty fungi, much like a mushroom bur grown underground. (Those of you wondering, the chocolate truffles you might have eaten during Valentine's Day are named after the fungi because of the way they look.)

This ungrounded fungi that is unlike any other mushroom you might have seen, smelled or eaten is called a truffle. There are thousands of truffles in the world and just like mushrooms, some you can eat and some you can not. Some rare. and highly desired truffles (Italian White) and have such a unique taste that their prices are North of $3000/lb. One rare large Italian white truffle sold at auction for $200,000! See article.

You may read this and be wondering, are they really with all that? That is a difficult question to answer as we asked ourselves the same thing. Then we had a dinner where Period Black Truffles were served throughout the meal as a dressing, salad topping, sauce and mixed in with a risotto. That answered our question with a hell yes they are worth it!

So what are these little gems? The first time you see one in real life, you think it is just a clod of dirt or something your puppy might have left in the yard, if you know what I mean. They are the fungi of an ectomycorrhizae that grow on the root of certain trees. Much like the apple to an apple tree the truffle, or in our case the (Tuber Uncinatum), is the fruiting body that grows from the mycorrhizae on the tree root. The ectomycorrhizae is a muchical benefiting relationship between the tree and the fungi. It helps the tree roots to reach nutrients that it normally couldn't and the tree then gives back the nutrients needed by the mycorrhizae. For a more in-depth description, click here or simply do a Google search for ectomycorrhizae. Warning! If you are not into science or biology and attempt to learn more on this subject, you head may just explode. (mine nearly did).

Now that you are back from googleing all of that, you may be asking if so many trees have mycorrhizae, they why don't they all have truffles? Remember that apple tree analogy? It is for the same reason not all trees have fruit or nuts or pine cones on them. Some trees grow a type of truffle that you would never want to find on your dinner plate while others are edible but have no real commercial value. The type of mycorrhizae we are after only grow on a few specific trees and in very strict soil and climate conditions. Those factors are what make these little treasures so rare. They are not like corn that one can grow almost anywhere and in fact you really don't "grow" truffles but you cultivate them like a button mushroom. We provide the tree and fungi everything it needs to grow but it is up to mother nature weather the tree will bear fruit.

So can you just plant some trees and poof have a truffle?  Kind of.  The poof moment does not happen for years, anywhere from as little as 3 years up to10+!  (the avgerage person can expect truffles in years 5-7).  When you plant trees innoculated with the type of Tuber you intend to harvest, it is a risk.  In Iowa the ground is frozen during the time the Black Perigord truffles are ready to be harvested so you may be able to grow them but you would not be able to harvest them and I am pretty sure selling them would be out of the question if you did get them out of the ground. That is why we turned our attention to the tuber uncinatum or Burgundy Truffle.  They are harvested in the fall just before the freeze.  Why is freezing bad?  Take a look at the picture above.  These truffles came from a farm in Norht Carolina, the on the left was harvested after the ground had frozen for only a couple of days.  Even though it is still a "fresh" truffle, meaning it was just pulled out of the ground.  Because it was frozen it can not be sold as a true "fresh" truffle.  North Carolina had an unusually cold winter this year.

What about value, how much are they worth.  That all depends.  Again you can Google any of the above varity of truffles and you will find prices for fresh Italian Whites around $3000/lb, Perigord Blacks around $1600/lb, and Burgundy's for about $500/lb.  These are of corse retail prices on the internet, I do not know for certain but I imagine that restraunts and chefs are paying a little less then retail. 

"How many pounds of truffles can I get out of a tree"? ,you may be asking.  This is a product that yeild is not measured by the tree but by the acre.  One tree by itself would most likely not produce a single truffle.  (In fact to this day, no one has been able to grow truffles on trees grown in containers.)  Truffle orchards are planted in mass, as much as 500 tree/acre in some palces.  I have read that a person could expect a yeild for Black Perigord truffles, around 35lb/acre on a well maintained orchard and at current prices, one can see how lucretative just a few acres could be.


In the end though, this is still an agricultural venture and should be treated as such. Trees must be tended to much like any other crop. This means that you are subject the will of mother nature and must plan on how to deal with all the things she can throw at you such as drought, floods and pests. ( This truffle on the left had it's fair share of visitors before it was pulled from the ground.)