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1Pages Newsletter Edition July 2015
Australian Truffle Growers Association, PO Box 1564, NEUTRAL BAY NSW 2089
The VTSIG group in front of Noel’s house and truffière at Korumburra
Email Addres s : newslet ter@truff legrowers .com.au Edition July 2015
FROM THE PRESIDENT
ANOTHER REMINDER. HAVE YOU PAID YOUR 2015 MEMBERSHIP? This is the last newsletter we will send out to the ‘lapsed’ members in the data-base. We will miss you and while we’ll be grateful for your renewal at anytime through the year, it makes membership less special if we just spread it around. There was a pleasing flurry of new members after we sent our last newslet-ter, thank you all for that. The Associa-tion needs funds to continue to operate for your benefit and the earlier pay-ments help us in our planning. There is always a rush at the time of the AGM and Conference as people realise they can save substantially at Members’ rates. Memberships are for the calendar year, and all members pay just one fee, $200. Go to members.trufflegrowers.com.au and login, (you can get your pass-word resent if needed). New members, follow the prompts to the sign-up page. And tell me if you are having troubles.Fred Harden, [email protected]
Dear Members, With all the action in the field and excellent publicity and media coverage it’s hard not to notice the truffle season is here. I think it is fair to say that this year’s launch of the season is unprecedented with major events on three sides of the country attracting record crowds of excited gourmets. What is especially pleasing, apart from the quality of the festivals, is the in-creasing interest Australian consumers have in understanding this exalted fungus. This interest augurs well for the growing maturation of the domestic market and an increasing demand for quality products.
Adding weight to this shift is the increasing interest of growers in grading and handling workshops - well informed growers translates into well informed consumers. Whilst talking of promotional activity, the Association will have a presence at Nigel Wood’s Melbourne Truffle Festival on the 11th and 12th July. held this year at The Centre Ivanhoe, 275 Upper Heidelberg Road Ivanhoe. www.trufflemelbourne.com.auColin Carter (Vice President) and I will be speaking on various virtues of truffles and growing them, and will also be found at the ATGA stand. Look out for publicity on the event and check out the Association website for details. If I don’t see you at Truffle Melbourne, I hope to see you at Queanbeyan in November (13th - 15th). Have a great season.Peter Stahle. President. Email: [email protected]
2Pages Newsletter Edition July 2015
VTSIG. Korumburra MeetingThat’s the acronym for Victorian Truffles Special Interest Group whose June meeting was hosted by ATGA member Noel Fitzpatrick.Looking strangely like a religious group meeting, (Gippsland still has several of the less familar religions in its rural pockets) the circle of growers on the hilltop in the hills of Korumburra were led by Andres Haas through an Agenda that drew largely on the group for feedback. Conversation ranged through their preparation and expectation for the current season, to issues with early rotten truflle (which some agreed may have been last seasons). The VTSIG is not affiliated with the ATGA and open to anyone to participate in their meetings. It’s a great opportunity to ask ques-tions and learn from each other, Andres did however encourage the group to join the Association, pointing out the benefits. After a BBQ lunch break Noel walked us through his truffière and the dairy he is converting into a truffle shed to tap into the extensive through traffic past his door. (Attested by the blat blat sounds of the bikers who love the twisty road to Wilson’s Promontory.) Then with Colin Carter they answered questions about pruning, weed control and Noel’s method of using the tree prunings between the trees as a low windbreak. There’s a short video on our Members’ website of the day, and Noel’s website is www.truffleharvest.com.au.
Hartley truffle grading workshopA mixed bag of early truffle from around the NSW region set a challenge for the organisers at Richard and Jane Austen’s property ‘Karingal’, at the foot of the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Noel Fitzpatrick’s 400 tree truffière at Jumbunna, in the green South Gippsland hills, Noel demonstrating a replacement planting for hope-ful gene type cross migration, and after lunch the group walk through the orchard with Q&A.
The Hartley Grazing Company’s meat room was the ideal location as Col Roberts lead the group through the obligations of growers in marketing their produce. The session was followed by a very expansive lunch presented by Jane with help from Sue Roberts and the group.
3Pages Newsletter Edition July 2015
Richard (and Jane) Austen
Col & Sue Roberts
After an introduction by Richard, Col started with the basics of being a responsible grader. He stressed that the credibility of our new industry in the eyes of our customers will depend on: our confidence in regard to species; our consistent quality of the grade; and using consistent terminology. Only then will we be able to set consistent price points.There was concern around the room, in a group with too few harvested truffles, about even recognising Tuber Melansporum from T. Brumale. Colin broke it down into what ‘you see and what you smell’, using the chart from Ian Hall’s ‘Taming the Truffle’.He covered the health issue of proper cleaning, the need for accurate digital scales with a calibration weight to demonstrate that accuracy to customers, and the ‘grader’s nick’ to expose colour and marbling. The importance of size, shape, smell, rot, defects and damage were demonstrated.Many of the growers had brought in samples and the group then had to work through their produce, with many realising they were a long way from First grade truffle this early in the season.There was discussion about packaging, methods of transport with some useful suggestions from member Adam Wilson MD of Great Southern Truffles in Western Australia.The session finished with an ATGA sponsored lunch and opportunity to network in the sunshine at Richard and Jane’s.(We’re looking forward to a report on the forthcoming WA Truffle Grading Workshop, see the website and our next newsletter)
Applying the 2012 ATGA grading standard . “Once you have examined your truffle closely and thrown out rotten, defective or unripe truffle, it is relatively easy to pick out the Extra Grade Truffle and the Second Grade Truffle. Then the rest should be First Grade.Remember that Extra Grade is a presentation grade truffle. It is a special truffle both in shape and aroma, worthy of a premium price in the market place. Extra grade will probably form a relatively low percentage of the total harvest.Second grade truffle is not good enough to sell as a fresh eating truffle, but it is quite good enough for product and cooking purposes”Taken from notes prepared by Col and Sue Roberts.The full ATGA Tuber melansporum Standard is available on the Members website in the Library section. A video of the grading workshop day will also be online.
Richard Austen is the current Association Treasurer, and came from thir-teen years working for Shell in their Coal businesses. He then worked ex-panding a family farm and rhyolite quarry near Lithgow. He married Jane in 1980 and as Hartley Pastoral Company has developed up a planting of 800 trees, planted from 2008 to 2011. Richard says that many trees will never supplant the cattle as main income but it happily provides them with more than just a weekend escape in winter. He has long been an industry advocate. (The only picture of Jane together with Richard we had, was at the kitchen sink - a bit sexist I reckoned.) Their website is www.hartleytruffles.com.au Contact at Richard at [email protected]
Colin and Sue Roberts own Lowes Mount Truffière in Oberon NSW Col and Sue Roberts established Lowes Mount Truffiere in 2002 as cattle farmers. Col is a forester and picked the best paddock for the 500 mixed oaks and hazelnut trees. They made a second planting in 2004. Today, it gives the couple an active industry interest and second income in winter. They sell direct into the Blue Mountains area and via their market stall at Eveleigh Farmers Market and the SMH Growers Market. They sell at the Oberon Farmers Market, and run quickly sold-out hunts with sit down lunches during the season. See www.lowesmounttruffles.com.au
Richard and truffle dog Maggie
4Pages Newsletter Edition July 2015
Conference update #2Queanbeyan 13-15 November 2015, will be the time to get real.
Accommodation Discount offerProbably the closest motel to the ‘Queanbeyan Roos Club’ venue for our Conference, is Hamilton’s Townhouse Motel. Owners Fiona and Robert de Bono have offered members identifying themselves as being with the conference, “the rate of $110 per room per night. This is greater than a 25% discount.” The motel is at 53 Tharwa Road Queanbeyan, NSW 2620. See the motel website www.hamiltonsmotel.com.au. Phone 02 6297 1877
Meanwhile, in a paddock outside Queanbeyan. On Monday 15 June a busload of around thirty five Sydney chefs took part in a truffle hunt and briefing by two neighbouring truffieres in Sutton, Wayne and Lanie Haslam’s (Blue Frog Farm) and ATGA members Jennifer and Michael Gardiner (Truffle-gate). They then moved on to Lerida Estate winery at Lake George to sample some truffle dishes prepared by Andrew Haskins from 3Seeds matched with some Lerida Estate wines. The trip was organized by T & F All States, a supplier of fresh and ready-made products (and now distributing Blue Frog truffles.)
With a broad theme of Market Realities this year’s conference and AGM promises to address some of the financial issues that members have been reporting of late. Making sure that those problems you are facing, and approaches you be-lieve will help, are uncovered will be the challenge of the three days we spend in Queanbeyan. Forums will replace some of the ‘experts talking’ spots of past years and we’re pulling together the most relevant forum members and MC’s who will push the sessions along.
Harvest dogs have always been an issue for small growers who can’t afford to have their own trained dogs. With more growers moving from ‘a few’ to kilos of output, they have to address how to ensure a seasonal need, when they can’t invest in support-ing a full time paid trainer/handler as the larger producers are able to. Then there is the concern of the quality of part time hunters who don’t get a full season’s activity to hone their and their dogs skills.
How much should growers pay for the future to ensure they can secure dogs and handlers? Perfect forum material.
Also an uncomfortable reality to face are issues of Biosecurity. Growers who care about it take at least minimum precautions in their truffières, but we all know there are a number of small growers who have not even read the ATGA recommendations. Is the time approaching that realities of threats from disease will bring ‘the need to know’ about all farm sites across growing regions. How would that be implemented in a world of ‘what I do in my pad-dock is my own business’?
Also important to Market Realities are quality and grading standards. We believe we can get it right with our ATGA Grading standard, but what about the bigger WA producers who resisted its introduction? We’ll seek their current position and practice on grading for the market. The ATGA contact for the 2015 conference is Wayne Haslam. E: [email protected] More: visitqueanbeyan.com.au and visitcanberra.com.au or call the friendly Queanbeyan Visitor Information Centre on 02 6285 6307.
Photo thanks to Michael and Jenny Gardiner
Barbara Hill’s truffle dog Fahren from Macenmist Black Truffles and Wine in Bredbo NSW waits for Tim Wesley from The Panthers Group. Behind (LtoR) Kurt Van Buren from Mercure Parramatta, Alex from Bathers Pavillion, Steve Proctor from The Royal Sydney Yacht Club, Kalinka from Quay.
J
5Pages Newsletter Edition July 2015
A new truffle growing book.
Any new truffle book is an important event. Especially when it comes from someone who is a friend of the ATGA family. Marcos Morcillo was a guest and spoke at our Conference in Launceston last year. Marcos and his friends Monica Sanchez and Xavier Vilanova have created a large graphic handbook that promises to be a ‘World’ guide to truffle growing. Marcos works in Spain and has consulted in South Africa and South America, and brought those experiences to this book. We’ve ordered a couple of copies and are waiting on the post, so until we see a copy, here’s Marcos’s blurb.
“Truffle Farming Today, a Comprehensive World Guide, is more than just a manual of the theory and practice of truffle farming. It is intended as a fully up-to-date compendium – as it goes to press – of experiences in this field from all over the world, covering everything from the optimum conditions for setting up, cultivating and managing plantations to the conclu-sions to be drawn from the most recently published scientific papers.
Unlike other truffle farming manuals, Truffle Farming Today, a Comprehensive World Guide, looks not only at the black truffle, but also at the cultivation and ecology of other truffle varieties around the world. The book has 352 pages, with 237 pictures plus 61 figures.”
Growers who have been following Marcos’s English language Blog at https://trufflefarming.wordpress.com/ and his website at www.micofora.com will have noticed the advertisments for the book in the last few days. They now have a payment gateway so you can purchase, but as it’s a heavy book, 1.4 kg ,the postage is very expensive. The price with $ to Euro conversion was AU$79 inc postage. We’ll let you know more about the book when we read it! Marcos also has announced he is running two five day Truffle tours in Spain in December and January. See the Micofora web-site for more details.
The slides of the presentation Marcos gave in Launceston are in our Members Library which will give you an overview of his experience and expertise. He asked us not to use the video of the presentation as he shared a number of ‘off the record’ conversations with the audience.
Nigel Wood, Noel Fitzpatrick, and Marcos Morcillo in 2014
Here’s a taste of Marcos Morcillo’s book contents (taken from the micofora website). Botanical illus-tration, growers stories, maps and charts. Looks good.
From the info@trufflegrowers in-boxEmail enquiries received from our website
Advertise! Many of the requests we get are simple. Where do I buy truffles? Who sells innocu-lated trees? Can I hire a dog? Oh, and I need advice and help with my site choice. Why not advertise your matching services on our public and Member websites? The website ‘traffic’ is over 500 visits a day and to a targeted audience for your services.Contact Fred or Peter Stahle on our email [email protected]
Hello, I’m looking to buy Black truffles, can you please supply a list of growers here in WA. Thank you Kind Regards Griff Hall. g h a l l @ i n d i g o g r i n d s . c o m Well, sorry but no, Griff. Members have access to each other’s details on our website but we’ll add your request to the newsletter. Done.
Member needs helpI have a couple of requests and hope you can help. First is that I have been let down with the training truffle for my dogs. Their noses need refreshing and I could not bring truffle from NZ. I need help finding some truf-fle - old/frozen is fine. Second is that I need to find growers that want their trees hunted this season. Are you able to assist with these requests. After all our work over the last four years I don’t want to waste two good noses. My number is 0447 630 192 and email is [email protected]. Hope to hear from you soon. Regards Prue Church
While we’ve checked links, we cannot vouch for the bona-fides of companies in these emails so it’s reply at your own risk.
Small Sydney distributor - opportunity to build relationship.
Hi! I am seeking a supplier of high quality truffles from NSW or the ACT to sell alongside my acclaimed portfolio of imported wines from France, plus also my own highly rated artisan wines that I make in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia and Rylstone, NSW. I currently sell my wines to a rapidly growing database of discerning, quali-ty-focused customers backed up by reg-ular email and social media campaigns that are underpinned by participation at three to four producers’ markets every week in and around Sydney. I am looking to work with one truf-fle producer who can not only consist-ently sell me high quality truffles but who can also provide me with infor-mation about their provenance that I can pass on to my customers to build up a long-term reputation for excel-lence for you and your truffles. You can find out more about me and my business via my two websites. The website for my wine making busi-ness is www.boovability.com.au and the one for my wine importing and selling business is www.theother-bordeaux.com.au. If this sounds of interest to you please contact me at [email protected] or on 0447 048 631. Hello, I found an interesting growth when out running yesterday. It was by the side of the road and at first I thought it was horse droppings. Upon closer inspection, it was spongy and smooth. It may be a truffle. It has an orange oil, it’s black, it smells mushroomy, and it weighs 380g. What should I do with it? Kind regards, Kate Elliott, Gisborne
We said it’s maybe scleroderma Kate, Google that, and don’t eat it if you don’t know what it is.
We get emails from China like this at least weekly, but since we’re all selling, not buying they’re only of passing in-terest (usually I check the prices). This one stopped me at the home page.
6Page Newsletter Edition July 2015
Isn’t that an old joke? “Waiter this mush-room is rubbery!”, “Ahh, thank you sir, I’ll tell the cook”
Always looking for new tastes we saw this in an upmarket Ramen place. Ichikoro is a beautifully designed Ramen noodle shop, located in central Tokyo in the Azabujuban area, a fashionable and international part of town. Tsukemen are literally “dip noodles”. Noodles and broth are served in separate bowls. A few strands of noodles are picked at a time and dipped into the thick rich broth. There was truffle and porcini in the broth and truffle grated on top.
