Climate Change and the Impact on Truffle Supply
April 8, 2016Truffle Talk: ITV News and BBC Radio Wales
July 25, 2016After 8 years of waiting, the first farmed Welsh truffle has just been harvested in southern Wales by an extremely excited cultivator: “I still can’t believe it, I’m over the moon!”.
Wishing to remain anonymous, the Welsh orchard owner added: “It’s the most potent perfume I have ever smelt! Better than the ones I’ve bought-in. Wonderful”.
The site is on pH-adjusted soil and was planted with English oak, holm oak and hazel, all inoculated with summer truffle. The owner completed some basic truffle-dog training and had moved to using fresh truffle as a scent source on the same day that the cultivated truffle was found.
The 38g find known as the Summer or Burgundy truffle (Tuber aestivum syn. uncinatum) is the first to be cultivated in Wales and adds to MSL’s other successes in truffle cultivation throughout the UK and the world.
Welsh truffle find - MSL makes history again!
After 8 years of waiting, the first farmed Welsh truffle has just been harvested in southern Wales by an extremely excited cultivator; “I still can’t believe it, I’m over the moon!”. Wishing to remain anonymous so that the location can be kept secret, the Welsh orchard owner added “It's the most potent perfume I have ever smelt! Better than the ones I've bought in. Wonderful”.
38g Truffle. As the first farmed Welsh
truffle, it’s priceless!
The orchard was started, and is run as part of our partnership scheme and follows on from our recent successes in England ( see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31826764 for more details).
British scientist and founder of MSL, Dr Paul Thomas added: “This is a very exciting day. We knew this was coming and in fact the site may have been producing for a couple of years already, it’s just that now we have a trained dog on site”. As the truffles grow underground, specially trained dogs are needed to sniff out the ripe and valuable fungi. The owner of the site started using fresh truffles to train the dog and the very same day, she found the first truffle on the orchard.
Our newest truffle hunter
- plenty of treats in store for this one!
Although it’s early in the season, the truffle was very ripe and incredibly well perfumed. This first truffle is being preserved for prosperity and then future harvested truffles will go to high-end restaurants across Wales and the UK, there’s a very high demand for British truffles as they are some of the best flavoured in the world.
The unearthed truffle was the Summer or Burgundy Truffle (Tuber aestivum syn. uncinatum), native to the UK, and weighed in at 38g.
Our Summer truffles are among the best in the world as those from cooler climes, such as we have in the UK, have the best flavour and currently retail at around £400 per Kg. This find marks the start of a Welsh industry and a queue of excited Welsh chefs looking forward to using the home grown produce! MSL grows truffles worldwide and we're expecting this early truffle find to be just the first of many truffles harvested across our UK sites this year.
The hazel tree that produced the first Welsh truffle using MSL
technology. The flags mark the location of the truffle find
British truffles, all currently wild harvested until now, have declined rapidly in the wild which is why cultivation is so important. If you would like to know more about purchasing truffle trees of any number, to see how our partnership scheme works or have any other question around cultivating truffles then please email us using the contact form and we’ll be happy to help.
We are seeking partners in the UK and around the world.