Introduction
From TruffleWiki
It may start as a dream, to grow the mystical, rare and delicate fungi with the most arresting aroma in the culinary world. Once you find your first truffle, this dream will eventually become an obsession and the passion will remain for the rest of your life. It is the most fantastic journey to travel, opening doors to worlds that you would never think probable or possible, from ancient restaurants and traditional old farms and farmhouses across Europe, to outback Australia, both islands of NZ, and to the finest dining establishments around the world. As a grower, wherever you may travel, the truffle will also be part of those travels and in conversations truffles somehow always arise.
Truffles appear to grow in a wide variety of soils and climates within Australia, with production in the south of Western Australia, the southern parts of Victoria, many areas in NSW along the Great Dividing Range, and of course in Tasmania where the first truffle plantations were developed in the early 1990s. There are also plantations in the ACT, South Australia and Queensland, however as of 2009, these plantations were not old enough to commence production. Truffles are also being produced in both Islands of NZ.
So it is obvious from the results so far, that the technology is available in Australia to achieve production in many parts of the country. Most of the plantations have some common themes;
- Free draining soils
- Irrigation water (drought proofing)
- Hot summer temperatures
- Cold winter temperatures
- Dedicated farmers
The most important of all these is the last, as attention to detail is the key to production! There has been a lot of collaboration between local and overseas truffle growers, marketers and research scientists over the past decades, both internationally and in Australia. The current success that growers are enjoying is in part due to these people, but also to the good old Aussie tradition of careful observation and being prepared to have a go at growing these fungi under conditions that some experts would doubt possible. There is now a vast array of management techniques available that have mitigated a lot of the growing problems and members of Australian Truffle Growers Association will be able to benefit from this collective knowledge. By being able to communicate with fellow growers locally and nationally and work through any problems new growers may encounter along their journey to production, the Association will grow to the benefit of members and to the benefit of the growing truffle industry.
Finally, growing truffles can be for simple personal pleasure or for profit and plantations might contain a few trees or thousands. While the warm and enthusiastic words above may be inspiring, it must be emphasised that truffle growing is not a ‘get rich quick’ project and should be viewed as a long term investment, that may or may not yield any returns, much the same as other agricultural pursuits.
We encourage you to join the Australian Truffle Growers Association, Inc, as a grower or an associate and assist us to make the industry rewarding and viable both domestically and internationally.
