This past month we’ve had to say a fond farewell to Emma Bleakly-Dean, who’s moving overseas to start a new adventure and will continue to work with us from time to time. We’ve also been joined by two new recruits, Heather Sutton and Catriona Jones. Heather has taken on Emma’s role and will be your first point of contact and will be helping out at this years events. Ecologist Catriona has joined us on a research role and has already started mining our data-sets and designing new trials For further information on truffles, contact us now: 0845 519 5808

The summer or burgundy truffle (Tuber aestivum/uncinatum) is a species with a huge market and a wide geographic spread. Wild finds of this species have been recorded from areas as diverse as Northern Africa to Russia. With a flavour that varies through the season, early summer varieties are often mildly flavoured and quite clean on the palate, while those harvested from late summer onwards can be really quite intense – in a similar vein to the Perigord truffle (Tuber melanosporum).

We had a great response to our Trees for Schools project. Our final trees of the season went out to Carnforth North Road Primary School and their 5-8 year old students.

For those in the know, a recent article in the prestigious science journal, Nature, has caused waves in the truffle world. Having no less than 50 authors, this excellent piece of research helps to start to answer some of the current questions in truffle research. One of the big questions has been whether the truffle itself is responsible for its complex aroma or whether it is other organisms that call the truffle fruiting body home. Through sequencing the genome it can now be conclusively stated that the truffle itself is responsible for the majority of its heady scent –

We are delighted to announce that later this year we will be holding a residential course for those interested in truffles and truffle cultivation. Based in exclusive, award-winning, 5* accommodation on the Isle of Bute, the course will be over two days and involve excursions and full in-depth sessions on all aspects of truffles and their cultivation. Including meals and accommodation at Balmory Hall, a spectacular grade A listed Victorian mansion, the course will include a champagne reception and some seriously good truffle-heavy food.

The very first bottles of the world’s first, truffle infused vodka go on sale this month. Vodka is not the only alcoholic drink to use truffles and there are a range of alternatives from Brandy to a number of liquors. For a number of these concoctions, it is the Périgord truffle that lends its flavor, infamous for its rich, earthy aroma and distinct taste. There are products which use just truffles for the flavor but as with most truffle oils, a synthetic and chemical flavor often listed as ‘truffle aroma’ is often added. For those interested in these alcoholic drinks, they can

Earlier this month we took journalist Sarah Falkingham on a secret visit to one of our UK plantations. Without giving away the location, we drove Sarah to one of our young plantations to observe our annual monitoring procedure and to see how the truffle-cultivation system works. Despite the rain, it was an interesting morning and Sarah’s investigative piece was broadcast on Friday the 9th of April on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme. The programme can be live streamed or downloaded from the BBC website through their ‘listen again’ service.

This month MSL is delighted to have contributed to the Sheffield Lord Mayor’s Charity Dinner, organized by city councillor Ray Satur. We provided several free truffle trees to be auctioned to raise money for the charity, although it turned out that Ray had other plans.

In rural Hampshire, our expert dog trainer Marion Dean has been busy crafting a new resource for would-be truffle hunters and farmers alike. Compiled from footage taken throughout 2009, the DVD aims to show how much care must be taken when harvesting truffles to prevent any damage to the valuable fungi, their mycorrhizal growth and the trees supporting them. With plenty of footage of truffle harvesting, you can also gain an insight into Marion’s style of teaching.