Over the pond our partner Robert Chang has been very busy drumming up awareness of truffle cultivation. He is currently holding truffle growing seminars in Napa Valley, California, with two more scheduled this month.

After the success of our first new growers’ seminar, we decided to make it a recurring event with the last meeting held on 22nd March. With participants from four countries, this last meeting was a huge success and was enjoyed by everyone who attended.

A new report commissioned by the Woodland Trust and written by Harper Adams University highlights the value of tree shelter belts to farmers in combating the effects of drought.

This month we have been very busy collecting and processing annual data from our truffle plantations. Data from sites analysed so far show excellent progress and strong improvement on last year’s results. Looking through the data, there have been a few surprises, such as the prolonged drought conditions in the East of the UK resulting in lower than average tree growth rates but unexpectedly above average truffle-mycorrhiza growth. Growth rates have been good across areas with normal rainfall levels, with our silver-birch trial trees reaching a whopping 2.5m within 3 years!