So you heard that a black truffle farm can be economically rewarding? Done correctly, a black truffle farm is the most lucrative legal cash crop that exists. But, don’t expect fast results or spend your future earning too quickly. A truffle farm can take some years before it starts to produce a single truffle. Here in Spain thou, black winter truffles can usually start to be collected / harvested 5 – 7 years after planting your trees. Other plantations take a lot longer to produce or never produce any truffles at all. Be ready to learn a lot of unpronounceable words and bang heads with farmers who have experience in other types of farming.
A black truffle farm is still considered snake oil by many farmers. But in the end, it is well worth the effort because 80% of a black truffle plantation is establishing it and afterward its low maintenance until you start collecting them smelly, ugly black potato like tubers that people will pay outrageous prices for. The truffle spore lives in what is called symbiosis on certain tree roots. In other words they live in harmony with each other – the roots give a place where the spore can live and propagate, in return for this favor, the truffle ports nutrition for the tree.
The black winter truffle is found in the wild here in Europe between the latitudes 40N to the 47N. Mostly in Spain, France & Italy, which corresponds basically from Valencia, Spain to Paris, France. They were introduced between the same latitudes but in the southern hemisphere some years ago, mainly in Australia and New Zealand. They are also being farmed in the USA from the Carolinas to the West coast along the same latitudes and in certain regions of South America. There are now profitable black winter truffle plantations throughout the world.
I am a black truffle farmer in the North of Spain. My farm is located on the outskirts of a town called Barbastro, Huesca, Spain. Its still a very young truffle farm, my trees are not producing any truffles yet but the prospects are wonderful.
Tags: truffles