Americans cultivate truffles and find success. Here’s how

Black truffles are most often associated with the European campaign. But as wild truffle habitats have decreased, truffle farms in the United States take root.

There are over 100 truffle orchards associated with the North American Truffle Growers’ Association (Natga). The producer of Truffles Margaret Townsend, who directs the association, said that part of the US truffle market is to give farmers the tools to understand the science behind truffles and adapt their cultures to a local field – and a local market.

Here is a more in-depth examination of what farmers and researchers learn about the growth and sale of truffles in the United States.

Truffle transition search

The magic behind the rich and earthy truffles lies in the relationship between the roots of a tree and the mushrooms Tuber melanosporumcommonly called the black truffle.

The roots of the trees offer a house and nutrients with truffle spores, while truffles provide nutrients to the tree. But, unlike other edible mushrooms such as Portobello or Porcini mushrooms, the fruit of truffle spores remain under the ground.

“We cannot grow it in laboratory cultivation, as you can button mushrooms,” said Inga Meadows, plant pathologist at North Carolina State University. “It’s hard to know what’s going on below this soil.”

Today, research continues on best practices in terms of growing American truffles. The projects carried out by the Growers Association truffle and universities are carried out in tandem with the producers themselves.

Studies show that black truffles have detailed types of mating that help American researchers know how truffles produce and how they can help local farmers develop their truffles faster.

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“There is a request for this type of truffle, and we must be able to obtain it so that it is something reproducible,” said Pat Martin, who helped start Virginia truffles with her husband. “It is a capricious truffle, it is not easy to cultivate, and we must try to rationalize it and understand how the interior functioning will make it appear faster than in the past.”

An hour and a half by car west of Washington, DC, the family truffle farm uses the latest research on the culture and agriculture of American truffles in the hope of improving its harvest.

They planted their first trees in 2008, harvested the first truffles in 2018 and said Martin, still experimenting with growth techniques. For example, planting different trees than hazelnuts, a tree known for producing truffles.

Martin said they were experimenting with varieties of trees because a fungal disease, the scourge of Filbert Orientale, “eliminated a lot of hazelnuts,” she said. “We thought we diversify our host species better.”

Martin said that a major barrier for most potential truffle producers is the time to cultivate harvest. When you say: “It will be eight years before having a harvestable harvest, everyone is, well, no, we are not interested,” she said. “

More recently, researchers from two major universities, alongside citizens and truffle dogs, have identified two new species of truffles from North America.

Pat and John Martin when they started Virginia’s truffles. Photo graceful of Vanessa Shea.

When Townsend planted her own tree for the first time on her Kentucky farm, she said she had to learn “difficult lessons along the way”. One was to discover that the “conventional wisdom” of the use of herbicide to eliminate all the weeds and plant among the trees for 7 years to avoid vegetative competition, left its orchard resembling a “burned earth”.

“We just took a step back and said, Gosh, you know, it cannot be fair to the extent that we were taught,” she said. “I eliminated all the herbicides from my orchard. And as soon as I did, my floor is better and the worms are back. ”

Townsend said that common wisdom among truffle producers producing European black truffles was once to exterminate any other variety of truffles. Now, these same producers through the United States are looking more closely at what truffles grow in their original soil.

“We have native truffles everywhere in the United States,” she said.

Meadows declared with the difficulty of reproducing European growth conditions for high -value truffles, it could be a good idea for more producers to start looking for native truffles.

“Perhaps we discover that black (truffle) is not great for eastern North America and perhaps we cannot unlock the code to have it produced commercially,” she said. “So how to increase the market for our native truffles?”

Researchers said that more about native truffles could be the next border.

Martin, in Virginia, still focuses on his precious black truffles and sells them to people who come to visit the farm, local chefs and online buyers. But, she is already expecting the future to see the next step.

“We now know better than ever that we have native truffles here that have a culinary value,” she said. “The demand is there and the kitchen has changed.”

Townsend said that she hoped that her generation of truffle producers will be able to help the next generation.

“The orchards on board now, I am very encouraged that we have transferred enough information so that these orchards can really put themselves in large quantities of production,” she said.

Educate truffle consumers

Truffles are expensive, selling between $ 800 and $ 1,000 per pound, but you could see truffle oil, truffle salt or truffle crusts in the grocery store for a fraction of this price. This is because the flavor can be imitated by artificial flavors.

In fact, producers like Townsend believe that “competition is artificial flavors”.

“Truffles are ephemeral in their experience, they are as much aroma as flavor,” she said. “If it brings you out of your chair, it’s not a real truffle.”

The North American Truffle Growers’ Association has approximately 200 members, including farmers, researchers and foraging. Townsend said the truffle market increased. This is why they work on ways to better educate American consumers on what they eat and the options they have if they are looking for real truffles.

Food, all with truffles, with virginia truffles is made by resident chief Adam Shea.

When people are curious to know how the industry works, she said: “One of the related questions is:” Do you already find it difficult to sell your truffles? ” And the answer to this question is “never”. »»

“You go to restaurants and get truffle oil, truffle fries, baked potatoes, puree of truffle potatoes,” she said, explaining that certain “truffle” products are made with artificial flavors.

To enlarge the American market, “we were able to educate people about what truffles are,” said Townsend.

Other experts in the field say that the marketing research required to do this is lacking. Jeanine Davis is scientific of plants at the State University of NC and said that when a niche, a precious harvest has a high cost and more difficult to sell, it can be intimidating for a farmer to undertake the company.

“We still have so much to learn about truffles,” she said. “We are in a way in a new territory.”