Truffles are among the world’s pre-eminent culinary delicacies. Revered for millennia, only their price has kept pace with their fame. Retail prices in the U.S. for Tuber melanosporum, the French black truffle or Perigord truffle have reached $1000 and $3000 USD per pound. Most truffles are harvested in the wild and since the wild supply is diminishing, prices continue to climb.
Truffles are a species of fungi that develops underground in symbiotic association with the roots of trees. The breakthrough that made their cultivation possible was development of technology to inoculate host trees with the fungus under controlled conditions. The use of inoculated trees to cultivate Tuber melanosporum and other truffles has proven successful over the past 20 years in Europe and many farms, including two in the United States are now producing French black truffles in other parts of the world. Trufficulture has now introduced this technology to Canada, and provides inoculated oak and hazelnut seedlings to the Canadian market.
To cultivate truffles, inoculated truffle trees are planted in orchards much like those for fruits and nuts, except that the crop appears below ground and is usually harvested with the help of trained dogs that can smell the truffles through a layer of earth. Truffles begin to appear several years after the inoculated seedlings are planted and production can continue for decades. The onset and duration of production depends to some extent on the species of host tree and on other factors such as soil composition, health of the host tree, irrigation and climate. Yields vary dramatically: some farms produce as much as 150 pounds per acre each year while others produce little. Typical yields in Europe range between 25 and 35 pounds per acre each year, but as methods improve many more farms are achieving yields in excess of 100 pounds per acre.
Our seedlings are checked by the University of British Columbia to confirm the presence and variety of the fungus and we provide a quality guarantee that the trees are viable, abundantly colonized by the correct truffle ectomycorrhizae and completely free of competitor species. We are also engaged in an active research program with the Truffle Association of BC and UBC to study the various cultivation practices for farming truffles in our local soils and climates. In addition to trees, Trufficulture can also provide consultation concerning recipes seasonality and identification of varieties, and can import fresh truffles when in season. Please call us for details.