COMBINING the science of truffle spores with the experience of growing trees has created a business on the edge of something big. Gemma Gadd reports
Perhaps it’s the mystical relationship truffles share with the roots of the host tree.
Maybe it’s the fact there is little documented about growing the unusual underground mushroom. Or maybe it’s the $3000-a-kilogram price tag.
Whatever it is, truffles, with their earthy, pungent aroma and the ability to transform simple foods into extraordinary meals, are proving an alluring alternative crop for Australian farmers.
For Colin Carter, the dawn of truffle cultivation in Australia has given rise to a new frontier in horticulture.
A lecturer in horticulture at Swinburne University of Technology, Colin and his family run Trufficulture, a nursery specialising in oak trees inoculated (infected) with truffle spores on 20ha at Gembrook, just east of Melbourne. They also farm a 1ha, oak tree plantation where they grow truffles.
"We’ve been in the nursery game for 30 years and only got into truffles a few years ago," Colin says. "We’ve since converted the nursery to produce truffle-infected trees."
Most of the 30,000-odd inoculated seedlings housed in the nursery are one of two oak varieties - the deciduous Holly Oak (Quercus ilex) and the evergreen English Oak (Quercus robur) - as well as hazelnuts (Corylus avellana). The business supplies about 10,000 trees annually to clients for establishing truffieres - truffle-producing plantations.
From the helm of this blossoming business, Colin has witnessed the rapid development of the Australian truffle industry - a trend, he believes, owes a lot to the mystique surrounding the underground mushroom.
"The science behind truffles isn’t all that hard to work out," he says. "It’s the romance and secrecy surrounding the industry that comes from the French that intrigues people."
For Colin, his business is a way of combining two passions - the mystery of unravelling the secrets of an ancient crop and the science of producing it for modern, evolving markets.
Truffles are edible fungi that grow on the roots of trees. The tree either hosts the fungi naturally - as in the forests of Europe - or has been inoculated with truffle spores.
Traditionally, pigs were used to sniff out truffles, which grow as deep as 20cm below the soil surface and emit a sweet odour when ready for harvest. Now, dogs are the preferred means, as they are more easily trained and less likely to devour the delicacy.
Consumed as early as 400BC, truffles are used in modern cooking to enhance natural flavours in food. They can be shaved fresh over meals or used to impart flavour through infused oil, stock or even eggs. Some of the most valuable and well-known varieties include the French black (Tuber melanosporum), the summer truffle (T. aestivum) and two white truffles - the Italian white (T. magnatum) and Bianchetto (T.borchii).
In the early 1900s, Europeans harvested 1000 tonnes of truffles each year from native forests, mostly in France. Now, due to deforestation, acid rain and illegal harvesting, growers worldwide harvest a meagre 50 tonnes a year.
"As production has slipped away, the French and Italians have been less able to rely on their traditional harvesting in oak forests," Colin says. "It was really the Spanish who figured out truffles could be farmed."
Australians, with a willingness to try new crops, have taken to the industry quickly, he says.
Since the introduction of truffles to Australia in 1990, Australia’s 225 growers have increased production to two tonnes a year, mostly in Western Australia and Tasmania. The Australian harvest is tipped to increase to 10 tonnes in 2013 (according to a report by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation) as truffieres come on line in regions such as Victoria’s Central Highlands and the Yarra Valley.
Australia mostly produces French black truffles, which can vary from just two centimetres in diameter to the size of a grapefruit and are covered in small black corrugations similar in texture to a dog’s nose. They retail for up to $3000 a kilogram.
But it’s the white truffle Bianchetto, that Colin hopes to produce. White truffles are more tolerant to low pH levels and grow more easily in wetter soils, whereas black truffles prefer dry, hungry soils. White truffles also appeal to top chefs looking for an alternative to the more commonly known French Black.
And so, with wife Jan and children Kaitlyn, 20, and Nathan, 24, Colin planted a one-hectare, 400-oak tree truffiere one year ago which they will use as a testing ground for new tree and truffle varieties.
"Initially, we put in the truffiere just to produce truffles for ourselves," Colin says. "I thought, as I move towards retirement, truffles would be ideal; they are relatively easy to grow - just a little bit of pruning and mowing, the harvesting is done with a dog at a leisurely pace and it’s a high-value crop."
But this plan has since evolved into a quest that took him and Nathan to Europe on an International Specialised Skills Institute TAFE fellowship at the end of last year, where the pair studied methods used to identify truffle species under a microscope.
These skills will enable them to examine and identify truffle-infected root tips - a valuable and necessary skill in growing their business. While they were on this trip, they experienced a taste of the elusive white truffle.
"We were out with a truffle hunter in Italy and, afterwards, we went back to his little stone cottage where he prepared a simple meal of shaved raw white truffle over pasta. It was staggering - unlike anything else."
They’ve since imported the white truffle inoculums, which tend to grow on willow and poplar tree roots, and will test it in the nursery.
"No one has ever produced a white truffle in cultivation," Colin says. "That’s going to be a goal of mine over the next few years. I don’t see it as a commercial venture, it’s more of a passion."
Despite rapid industry expansion, growing domestic and export markets make truffles a viable (if long-term) alternative income source for Victorian farmers, Colin says.
"Our big advantage is our seasons," Colin says. "The French don’t expect truffles in summer, but visitors to Europe would like to experience truffles year-round. Some French markets have just 50 to 200 kilograms to sell each week (in winter) and it goes in minutes."
Most Australian truffles are exported to Japan and other high-value markets where Australia’s clean and green image and reputation for stringent quality assurance is established.
And there are possibilities for developing truffle-based products - truffle-infused oil and honey, for example - for greater market penetration, Colin says.
While Colin is the first to admit truffles are not a get-rich-quick scheme, he believes there are ways for Australian growers to incorporate the crop into mixed-farming enterprises.
Truffieres can be planted on broadacre farms as windbreaks or on smaller properties and demand is tipped to hold up in the long term, he says.
"The market will not be saturated in five to 10 years when new truffieres are up and running,’’ Colin says. "We actually need more people to join the industry to get that critical mass where we can start to supply more export markets."
The truffle season runs from June to August and, in most Australian truffieres, about 10 per cent of trees are in production in the first couple of seasons (although it takes four years for the first truffle production to take place). While the exact environmental triggers that affect truffle initiation and development are not entirely understood, Colin says Spanish growers have achieved production in 30 to 90 per cent of trees.
Pruning, cultivation and irrigation techniques used by the Spanish may all contribute to improved yields and make investment in testing new techniques in Australia worthwhile, he says.
While Colin admits "the science of growing the truffle tends to take all the romance away’’, he is one horticulturist proving science and romance can co-exist happily - much like the truffle and the roots of its host tree.
SECRETS TO SUCCESS
Practise what you preach. Combining complementary businesses - such as a truffiere and nursery - allows you to experiment with your own product and speak from real experiences
Join an association or growers’ network. While many people are reluctant to speak publicly about growing such a high-value crop, it’s important to share information. The Australian Truffle Growers Association, www.trufflegrowers.com.au
Study. You never stop learning and don’t be afraid to try something new.
UNEARTHING THE SECRETS
Know your soil. Truffles thrive in hungry, lime-based soils and require soil with a pH of 8. Test your soil to determine the current pH and the amount and type of lime that needs to be applied before doing anything else. The soil then needs to be properly prepared by deep-ripping and incorporating the lime.
Pick your plot. Truffles prefer cold winters with frosts and hot summers with 600 to 1000 millimetres annual rainfall. Resist the urge to hide your truffiere on the lowest, most secluded part of the farm and plant in free-draining soils with a sunny aspect.
Low maintenance does not mean no maintenance. Oak trees are easy to grow, but there are a few practices that will assist in truffle production. Minimise vegetation around the base of the tree, avoid organic mulches and prune lower branches to allow access under the canopy and for winter light to get through.
Be water-wise. Although oak trees are hardy, irrigation in summer may provide a trigger for truffle formation after an extended period of dry days.
Watch your nutrition. Avoid using mineral fertilisers. Use seaweed, fish emulsions and worm leachates instead, which will stimulate the bio-life in the soil.
FARM FACTS
Trufficulture
Colin and Jan Carter, with children Nathan and Kaitlyn, run Trufficulture, a truffiere (truffle field) and nursery supplying inoculated oak and hazelnut trees on 20 hectares at Gembrook, east of Melbourne.
Trufficulture mostly sells two varieties of oaks inoculated with French black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) spores - the deciduous Holly Oak (Quercus ilex) and the evergreen English Oak (Quercus robur). Trees are checked to ensure a “good infection’’ at 18 months.
The Carters use their one-hectare, 400-oak tree truffiere to test new species of trees and truffles, as well as new cultural and management practices. Currently, 15 varieties of trees are under trial and Trufficulture plans to produce the white truffle known as Bianchetto.
