General
- Truffles are
hypogeous (underground) versions of mushrooms. They don't form a
prominent stem and their spore-bearing surfaces are enclosed. They rely
on animals eating them (mycophagy) to distribute their spores, instead
of air currents like mushrooms. Truffles resemble small potatoes, and
often between the size of a marble and a golf ball .
- There are hundreds of
different kinds of truffles, and while none are known to be poisonous,
only a few of them are considered to be delicacies by humans. Truffles
(and mushrooms) are only the "fruit" of the fungus (like an apple to an
apple tree); the main perennial fungal body exists as a web of
filamentous hyphae in the soil.
Growth &
Cultivation
-
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 or pigs 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.
- Truffle
propagation has been attempted in Europe for millennia with mixed
success. Experimental plots of European truffles are now spreading
like weeds across the Globe. Oregon has very fine truffles that have
grown here in conjunction with local plants for probably thousands
of years. TruffleZone advises anyone that is considering truffle
propagation in their locale to use the most pungent local truffles
Processing
& Technology
-
Farmers are
instructed what is exactly wanted BEFORE they go to harvest the
truffles. If they are not instructed on picking the right truffles
before they go deep in the mountain, farmers usually pick all the
truffles they can find, which includes very small and premature
ones.
When the truffles are cleaned and sorted according to kind, the ones
among them which have gone bad or which are woody, are sorted out.
Truffles are preserved in cans
and jars, which provides the customer with a bigger window and more
alternative for using truffles.
- In North American
forests, prescribed burning and mechanical thinning are widely used.
A results suggest that either thinning or burning can reduce
short-term truffle production and consumption, and potentially the
dispersal of ectomycorrhizal spores by small mammals. Moreover,
truffles decreased with treatment intensity, suggesting heavy
thinning and higher burn intensity, particularly when applied
together, can significantly affect short-term truffle abundance and
small mammal consumption.
Market
- The sale of
truffles remains quite exclusive and secret. Truffle harvesters
gather generally each week at truffle markets, which take place in
different villages depending upon the day of the week. Preserved
gourmet truffles take about 60% of the total world’s market share of
truffles, as they are the best way to obtain truffles while not in
season.
-
Truffles are among the world’s preeminent
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, and
Tuber magnatum, the Italian white truffle, have reached $1000
and $3000 per pound.
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