Edible Blue Ridge Winter 2022

From left:Taylor with her dogs Pozzi, Harley, and Nadine. Oaks are the preferred trees for cultivating black truffles. A breaching black truffle.

We spot a few breaching truffles, pushing out from the earth before fully ripe. Taylor points out their darker, veined skin to me as she carefully places earth back over them. In anoth er area, an animal has been clearly digging at a breaching truffle. Raccoons and groundhogs are frequent pests, and Taylor employs someone to trap and transport the animals far from the orchard’s vicinity. Another problem truffle growers face is competition amongst the truffles themselves. Truffles require two mating partners in order to reproduce, but often one will outcompete the other, halting growth. To remediate this, Taylor grinds up small truffle pieces, adding them to water to create a slurry, which she sprays near trees that haven’t produced in a season, thus en couraging new mating and growth. Taylor doesn’t use foliar sprays or amend the soil, with the exception of adding lime. Vir ginia soils often have a pH of around 6, while the fungus thrives in soils with a pH of 8. Tay lor adds lime to the soil, which “sweetens’’ it. Certain species of fungus cannot thrive under these new soil conditions, and so, Tuber mela nosporum takes their place. With the amended soil, growers in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee have discovered the emergence of a native Appalachian truffle, smaller in appear ance than the Périgord most growers cultivate. Knobby, scrunched and deeply veined, a truffle doesn’t look like much at first, but the flavor is unlike anything else. Earthy, pungent,

also how that product affects your trees; for me it’s really interesting. I’ve always loved to farm and I love the concept of a biodynamic environ ment where everything is working together.” With truffle cultivation still being in its in fancy, it means Taylor knows most of the com munity, trading tips and advice with growers in Australia, Oregon, France and even New Jersey. “The truffle world is small and large at the same time, you end up meeting everyone, eventu ally,” Taylor says. Asked if she worries about competition her response is immediate and emphatic: “The more people producing truffles, the more the industry is going to expand, be cause right now, we’re so tiny, no one is paying attention to us. There’s no grant money, there’s no funding for research, there’s no funding for organizations to help growers. All of the organi zations — whether regional or national — are self-funded and that, that’s difficult.” There’s room to grow in this industry, es pecially in Virginia. Former tobacco farmers might start truffle orchards, and this is a mar ket ripe for agritourism, which benefits not only one farm but the businesses that surround it and the community at large. This is a crop that can be explored, celebrated and expanded upon … Virginia Truffle kettle corn, anyone?

with a hint of sweetness (think dark chocolate) if you’re tasting the Pèrigord variety, it’s easy to see why this strange “fruit” is coveted by chefs across the world. Once only a foraged food, cul tivation has seen truffles become more acces sible to at-home cooks. Between the months of December and March Virginia Truffles holds truffle hunts on weekends, welcoming guests to hunt the truffles alongside Nadine and then enjoy a truffle-centric meal over an open fire. Truffles are also available to purchase in person or online, and a few restaurants (Three Black smiths, Early Mountain Vineyards, The Inn at Little Washington) in the area feature truffles on their menus. Taylor suggests storing truffles in a jar with eggs. The porous shells allow the eggs to absorb the truffle flavor and the eggs provide enough moisture to keep the truffle from drying out and losing its pungency. (Rice, which is often used in restaurants to store truffles in, is too dry an environment for a truffle to be stored in for more than a day or two.)The truffley eggs make for a delightful soft scramble and are a favorite of Taylor and her family. As we sniff a jar containing truffles and eggs, I tell Taylor it seems as if she loves the field she’s found herself in. “Oh, I do. It’s fascinating on a scientific level; I love the dynamic the fun gus has with the environment, how the entire environment plays a role in your product, but

To learn more and purchase truffle hunt tickets, please visit: www.virginiatruffle.com.

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