Black Gold
New Zealand growers are gambling on finding their own pot of black gold.
Sniffing out New Zealand truffles, plus recipes
Aworking dog named Cole lives on a small farm in the eastern Bay of Plenty near Whakatāne. Previously, 11-year-old Cole worked as sniffer dog for the Ministry of Primary Industries in the mail centre at Auckland’s International Airport. This dog just loves to sniff out food and these days, retired from city life, he continues in that vein, living on a truffière and tasked with detecting the scent of black Périgord truffle
(Tuber melanosporum) for Ian and Clare Treloar of
NZ Winter Truffles.
Truffles are the fruit of fungi that grow in symbiotic relationship alongside the roots of English/common oak and hazelnut trees. Truffles prefer to grow in sweet limestone soils and require hot, dry weather followed by a crisp cold winter to help ripening. To begin with, the roots of the trees must be infected with the mycorrhizal fungi. Truckloads of lime fertiliser were added to the Treloars’ two-hectare plantation prior to planting about 500 Périgord truffle-inoculated hazelnut and oak trees.
“It was the thought of finding gold at the end of the rainbow”, says Ian when asked what inspired him to plant oak and hazelnut trees on their lifestyle block 17 years ago.
The truffle industry in New Zealand is relatively young – gold or rather ‘black gold’ was first successfully produced in New Zealand at a cultivated truffière in the Gisborne vicinity in 1993.
So it can be a risky business to wait for the ‘black gold’ as it is never guaranteed.
Twelve years later, after much learning on the job and patience, their experiment finally produced truffle. That very first harvest by Cole of beautiful black Périgord truffle was in 2015. This past season the truffière has produced its best-ever crop of five kilograms.
From June, early winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and up until late in August, Cole proudly wears his working jacket on his early-morning sniffs to seek out the scent of truffle. The damp morning air provides a perfect time for the scent to linger. The truffles are not easy to find as they look a lot like a clump of dirt and sit about five to 10 centimetres under the soil.
Pigs and dogs have long been used to hunt for these valuable fungi. Pigs are naturally inclined to eat the highly valuable delight, whereas dogs are happy with a tasty substitute.
Thirty to 60 grams is an average size, but truffles as massive as 900 grams have been discovered in New Zealand.
The exotic culinary flavour of truffle is a prized ingredient for chefs and restaurateurs worldwide, particularly loved in France, Italy and Eastern Europe.
The unique scent is very rich and provides an umami taste, which has an affinity to creamy and naturally rich fats such as eggs, cream and butter. Simple ingredients such as potatoes, fresh pasta and rice are perfect accompaniments to carry the unique flavour. The delicacy has a reputation for being grandly expensive, and is held in high esteem by professional chefs and passionate foodies. Winter menus at an increasing number of New Zealand’s best restaurants, hotels and lodges offer fresh truffle and wellregarded chefs are known to create elaborate menus specifically around truffle to entice their diners in the depths of winter.
There are now 150 truffières in New Zealand, of which 30 are producing one or more of four truffle varieties. The winter types are bianchetto white truffle (Tuber borchii); black Périgord truffle, (Tuber melanosporum); and winter black truffle (Tuber brumale). The Burgundy summer truffle (Tuber aestivum) is available around late November until about March the following year.
Ohiwa Truffles was one of the very first truffle plantations established in the Southern Hemisphere. Located on the coast of Ohiwa Harbour near Whakatāne, this truffière is also the biggest producer of black Périgord truffle per hectare in New Zealand.
It was established in 1987 on heavily limed volcanic ash by scientist Dr Ian Hall, who at that time worked for a branch of Crop and Food NZ (now Plant and Food Research). Hall had the idea of cultivating truffles in New Zealand for the lucrative off-season markets in the Northern Hemisphere. Ohiwa Truffles is quite unique in that it has only 30 enormous old oak and hazelnut trees that produce around 35 to 40 kilograms per year.
The first bianchetto white truffles to be harvested in the Southern Hemisphere were found in July 2006 under a three-year-old stone pine tree plantation near Christchurch.
The first commercial harvest of bianchetto white truffle in the Southern Hemisphere was made by Jeff Weston (Borchii Park) near Christchurch in autumn 2008.
Limestone Hills Truffière in the Waipara Valley, north of Christchurch, was amongst the first properties to plant trees infected with bianchetto white truffle and Burgundy summer truffle. This truffière is the only commercial grower of the four types of truffle in New Zealand.
The highest price ever paid for a New Zealand truffle was NZ$9000 per kilogram, but a typical price is a more modest NZ$3700 per kilogram.
Many New Zealanders are still unaware that truffle is now grown in this country and available to buy.
Ian Treloar is appreciative of the valuable work Gus Tissink, general manager of specialist produce supplier Bidfresh Hamilton, does to promote locally grown truffle. Tissink is hopeful that New Zealand’s truffle industry will grow in the same direction as Australia’s – Australia is the fourth largest truffle-growing nation.
Tissink has been working with NZ truffle-growers for six years now. He sources truffles for the hospitality industry from eight truffières in Canterbury, Waikato and the eastern Bay of Plenty.
“I see my work as two-pronged, first helping to build confidence in the chefs and restaurateurs to use truffle, plus working with the truffle growers to open pathways to sell their unique delicacy,” says Tissink.
Let’s hope that we will soon be able to find locally grown New Zealand truffles at local farmers’ and fresh food markets.