Truffle growing takes much patience

John Burn and Bill Sell set Simba and Ash on the hunt for the elusive truffle. Photo by Maureen...
John Burn and Bill Sell set Simba and Ash on the hunt for the elusive truffle. Photo by Maureen Bishop
If there is one attribute growers of the prized truffle fungus need it is patience and New Zealand's two southernmost growers have it in abundance.

That is just as well, for if John Burn and Bill Sell had thought they would make a quick fortune they would have been sorely disappointed.

It was 1990 when Mr Burn planted the first of his 140 hazelnut and oak trees on his Ashburton property. Mr Sell's 470 hazelnut trees are much younger.

It certainly isn't money which attracted the two men to hunt the elusive truffle. It's more about the challenge.

It was 12 years before Mr Burn harvested his first truffles - the prized Perigord, or black truffle.

His best year was 2006, when he got between 6kg and 8kg and at about $3500 a kg, that went some way to compensate for the unproductive years.

''You won't make a fortune out of it. Not unless the trees produce every year,'' he said.

A miscalculation with fertiliser has meant no truffles for the past two years, but the soil's nitrogen level is now dropping and tests show the trees still have truffle spores. He hopes it won't be too long before the fungus reappears.

Mr Sell also harvested black truffles - ''enough to get me excited'' - and this year he got his first white truffles, or ''borchii''.

While traditionally borchii are not as highly valued as the Perigord, prices have risen and they are now worth about $3000 a kg.

Truffles were first commercially produced in the mid 1990s in New Zealand after being produced in 1987 by Dr Ian Hall, then a mycologist at Invermay near Dunedin.

It is estimated there are now around 300 truffieres (truffle groves) in New Zealand, but only a small percentage are planted for commercial purposes.

The main market for truffles is specialty restaurants.

''I would harvest on Thursday morning, aiming to finish about 2 to 3pm, and then spend an hour or two washing, drying and weighing them. We would wrap each one individually, label them with the origin and weight and then send them by overnight courier to Auckland,'' Mr Burn said.

''They would be there by 9am the next morning and on the menu on Friday and Saturday nights.''

There is potential to export the delicacy overseas but buyers wanted 5kg a week, every week of the season.

While the men are grateful for research and information shared, they acknowledge there are still many unknowns.

''The optimum soil pH is 7.9,'' Mr Sell said.

''Everyone agrees with that. It means that competing fungus can't cope with that but the black truffle can.''

But there are plenty of views on other conditions.

The black truffles start forming in December and the main harvest is in June and July.

There to sniff out the fungus, which grows just under the surface, are Mr Burn's chocolate Labrador, Simba, and Mr Sell's Jack Russell, Ash.

Simba, like Mr Burn's first dog, Pat, came from an animal shelter.

Ash, who Mr Sell says has a short attention span and will chase everything from mice to birds and even aeroplanes overhead, is still in training.

There are now professional truffle dogs available and a Christchurch trainer is using Mr Sell's property to train them.

''I trained Ash with cheese to start with and gradually replaced it with a bit of truffle.''

The hazelnut crop is a by-product of the truffle industry, but it is often more trouble than it is worth.

''Hazelnuts will always be a by-product,'' Mr Sell said.

''The risk and effort of harvesting them is not worth it for $7 a kilogram. There's a risk of perhaps crushing baby truffles and $7 a kg doesn't go far.''

- by Maureen Bishop 

 

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