Truffle Trees - BBC Countryfile Summer Diaries 2016

to a top-secret location in Leicestershire where she goes in search of a food that says elusive as it is expensive and it's been kept under a veil of secrecy for seven years because this is the first farm in Britain to grow the delicacy black truffle commercially and it's said to be worth its weight in gold bringing the truffle back to the British countryside is something Paul Thomas is particularly passionate about it's been an uphill battle for Paul we're looking for an investment of 75 thousand pounds now microsystems is a company based around their production of black truffles but he managed to secure some pretty impressive backing if you're happy it's a deal to fund his dream of cultivating the truffle under home soil Paul great to see you nice to see you 12 years later I've come to see how he's getting on truffles used to grow over quite large swathes of England really we used to have markets in the southwest mrs. Beeton wrote about them but when we lost a lot of our natural woodland we lost a lot of our wild truffles so at the moment there's not that much produced in the world so we're cultivated in to try and bring that industry back and of course there's a financial incentive because they're worth quite a bit money but it's not a harvest for the faint-hearted unlike more common crops that produce each year Paul has to wait longer much longer before his fungus comes to fruition so is this it is this the tree that gave you the first truffle yeah this is the tree which reduced Britain's first cultivated truffle I was digging around the base of the tree just looking for roots to sample and then unexpectedly just hit this truffle incredibly exciting day and how long did this tree take to give you that first harvest this took six years six you wait for a harvest that seems quite a while yeah but I mean when's they're producing their produce every year so it's worth it but it is you've got to wait for the tree to mature for the fungus to mature so it's a taste good few years and how do you get trees to give you truffles well we start from a seed and all these trees you see around you actually are seeds that I've planted myself it's start from a seed we clean them up we grow them in a very clean sterile environment in the lab we culture up the truffle fungus and then we introduce them to each other and we got the fungus to bind with a root system of the tree and it covers the root system like a glove covering a hand and then we take that young plant we plant it into the ground and carefully control soil conditions and then they grow up and six years later produces wonderful truffles sought-after by some of the world's best chefs their prized for their earthy taste and distinctive aroma and demand is on the rise even though they cost over 400 pounds per kilo although traditionally harvested in the autumn months because of the milder climate English groans summer truffles can be unearthed as early as June without compromising their flavour or fragrance but finding truffles has always proved a little tricky traditionally pigs were used as they're attracted to a chemical released by the underground mushroom but they had a horrible habit of eating them for that reason dogs are now the truffle hunters companion of choice this is Freddie truffle hunting is new to him and although he's been in training for some time today the pressure is really on let's hope Freddie can come up trumps with the truffles so we've been out for a few minutes now freddie's off doing his thing what's he actually sniffing out yeah so Freddie's looking for obviously the truffle scent whistles Freddie's got quite a difficult job because it's such a windy day now that scent column if you imagine if you let handling.you blow it out that little plume of smoke if you imagine that going off with the wind that's kind of what's happening to the sense so it's really hard for Freddie to locate that follow it and pinpoint where the truffle is how will we know when he's found something he'll hopefully he will play spore by it and he will lie down so that's that's what we'll wait it looks quite quite in the zone no he's concentrating so that's good he's got his nose to the ground and he's moving across looking for those same columns he may have his nose to the ground but right now I'm not so sure Freddie's heads in the game philip has Freddie done I think is that a great time interesting smells I've no doubt as truffle activity going on you find them the most unexpected times and when you're sure you're gonna find one you don't I guess that's why there's such a valuable harvest yeah absolutely absolutely quite mysterious I guess Freddie might not have struck goals but it looks like Paul may have in his effort to bring the black truffle back to Britain's forests it's amazing to think that this tiny little lump goes to such high prices but now home discovered what goes into nurturing cultivating and finding it can truly appreciate why the truffle is known as the Black Diamond of the kitchen you

Channel: Mycorrhizal Systems Ltd

Views: 34,768

Keywords: Truffle trees, Truffles, Dr Paul Thomas, Truffle dog hunting, Truffle hound hunting, Truffle hunting, Truffle cultivation, UK truffles, BBC Countryfile, Mycorrhizal Systems Ltd, Plantations Systems, Growing truffles, Growing truffle trees, Truffle Farm, Black truffle, Summer truffle

Id: ySimphlEHiM

Length: 5min 37sec (337 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2016