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Welcome to News from The English Truffle Company
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First Scottish Cultivated Truffles
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Scotland's first cultivated Black Summer truffles were recently discovered in a truffle plantation near Edinburgh. They were found growing on inoculated English Oak trees some seven years after planting. Naturally occurring Summer truffles are very uncommon in Scotland with only one published record dating from 1985. This was again near Edinburgh but under a Turkey Oak on alkaline soils over Limestone. Such conditions are uncommon in Scotland, where acidic soils dominate. However, as at this orchard, it is standard practice, where required, to increase the natural soil pH into the optimum range for truffles through the addition of agricultural lime.
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Contrary to what you may think, much of Scotland has a climate that is suitable for growing truffles. A recent report in the Climate Research journal, suggests that truffle cultivation potential in the UK is increasing due to climate change.
The largest of the first harvested Scottish truffles went to the Michelin-starred Kitchen Restaurant in Leith. Chef Tom Kitchen said: “Scottish truffles! How exciting! It would be a dream come true to get a good supply of Scottish truffles."
To learn more about trying to grow your own truffles please visit the web site.
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We've been spending lots of hours in one of our woods this winter performing some much needed woodland management. The site where truffles grow naturally, also has a lot of Ash and Sycamore trees around the edge which distribute their seeds throughout and young trees are growing up in amongst the planted Beech. Neither Ash or Sycamore can host truffles and they have reduced the area we can truffle hunt in, so we have been removing large numbers of the young trees.
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Before: Much of the truffle wood has self-seeded Ash and Sycamore among the planted Beech trees.
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After: the Ash and Sycamore have been cleared.
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Our Truffles in Landmark DNA Sequencing Project
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We were delighted that one of our truffles from a Dorset woodland had its entire DNA sequence decoded as part of a project to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The Institute is one of the world’s leading genomics research centres. It was the UK home for the Human Genome Project – which revealed the entire DNA code of life. A genome is an organism’s complete set of genetic instructions written in DNA. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build that organism and allow it to grow and develop. The resulting sequence will be the reference genome for that species.
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We supplied the truffle for this project.
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Congratulations to all the dogs and their handlers who joined us for woodland-based truffle hunting lessons over the winter and found their first truffles.
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Amber's first truffle.
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Our first truffle dog training workshops of the year are scheduled for 5th May (Chichester) and 12th May (Banbury). There is one place left at Chichester. Banbury is fully booked.
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We are currently offering our newsletter readers 10% off:
Use the coupon code 10%Spring2018 at the checkout to get the discount. Code valid until 30/04/18. Please note it only valid for the above products.
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We've been busy in the period since the end of the truffle season working on a whole raft of mini-projects that have been on hold for quite a long time. Our web site has had a lot of behind the scenes work improving our security and efficiency. The gift voucher process is now fully automated end to end, this means we don't need to be physically involved when you buy gift vouchers and they are delivered by email immediately after purchase - 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. This is great when you've forgotten an important occasion and need a present at the drop of a hat. We offer gift vouchers for:
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Truffle News From Around The Globe
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Tuber brumale (Wikimedia Commons)
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Truffle Found Growing on Paris Rooftop!
A wild-growing truffle was discovered growing in a roof garden in Paris a few months ago. It was a type of black truffle tuber brumale, which tends to grow in the same regions as its more highly-prized cousin, the Black Winter (Périgord) truffle. It was found at the base of a hornbeam tree on the roof of the Mercure Paris Centre Tour Eiffel hotel by a researcher from the Museum of Natural History.
Brumale and Périgord truffles are native to southern France, Italy, Spain and Croatia, but as we reported just before Christmas, a truffle plantation in South Wales last year produced the UK's first Périgord truffle. The maps of areas that are suitable for truffles are being redrawn!
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How many baby truffles are formed per square metre?
New, unpublished research on the Périgord (Black Winter) truffle from Greek researchers found by sieving soil that 104 "baby" truffles (primordia) were found per square metre in the area of an active truffle mycelium (the microscopic "threads" that form the majority of the body of a fungus). Unfortunately, most die, are eaten by insect larvae or develop too early and consequently rot rather than making into fully grown truffles.
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