Todd A. Price|The American South
The glass jar arrived overnight from North Carolina, 650 miles to the east. It sat in the kitchen of The Hive, an upscale, art-filled restaurant in the increasingly cosmopolitan city of Bentonville, Arkansas. Chef Matthew McClure unscrewed the cap and a strange smell escaped. Earthy and moist, it was the smell of the forest floor of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
McClure fished into the jar full of oats and pulled out a black, nubby ball: a truffle. He ran it over a mandolin and the wafer-thin slices formed a mottled pattern of beige and brown.
“It's beautiful,” McClure said.
This truffle was oneImaia gigantea. They only grow in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Japan. Alan Muskat, the collector who found this truffle, believes the species, which he calls the Blue Ridge Truffle, may be one of the rarest in the world.
What is a truffle?
A truffle is a fungus, a fruit of a fungus that attaches to the roots of trees and exchanges minerals for sugar. Truffles grow underground. To spread, they must trick an animal into eating them. Certain truffles, such as the white ones from ItalyA huge tuberor the black truffle from the Périgord, appeals to people as much as gourmets have known since the time of the ancient Greeks.
The truffle oil, truffle salt, truffle popcorn and even truffle ketchup on the supermarket shelves are synthetic and one-dimensional. A real truffle is a complex puzzle of scents and flavors. Truffles are rare and fleeting. A picky eater pays up to $1,000 per meal. pound for the privilege of having them shaved over pasta or eggs.
Truffles have long been associated with European luxury. But in Australia they have been successfully bred. Oregon has developed enough truffles to support an annual festival. And more and more Southerners are paying attention, working to cultivate European truffles and discovering native species growing beneath the trees in their woods, groves and even backyards.
“The South is becoming the truffle powerhouse,” says Rowan Jacobsen, author of the new book.Truffle dog”(Bloomsbury).
The collectors
Nutmeg, who found itI. gigantictruffle, has been a feed dealer for 30 years. He makes a living by selling ingredients like oyster mushrooms, chickweed and purple dead-nettle to chefs in Asheville, North Carolina. However, for years he kept the truffles he found a secret. He feared that news of the truffles would trigger a devastating gold rush, sending prospectors into the forest armed with rakes.
Muskat, who studied philosophy at Princeton, now hopes that the rare truffles he collects can be a catalyst for protecting the forest in which they grow. He plans to lead groups that collect Blue Ridge Truffle to take home to cook or have prepared at a local restaurant.
“That way they are connected to the habitat, the ecosystem and the community that it is a part of,” he said.
De Appalachian-truffels, ofKnol Canaliculatum, beeMichaël Rigganhunting is growing as far north as Ontario, although most are found in the south. The supply is far from abundant.
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“Honestly, there are only three of us who have found any quantity of Appalachian truffles in the United States in recent years,” Riggan said.
He describes the Appalachian truffle as having a "sweet, cinnamon-like aroma."
Washington, D.C., chef Frank Ruta has had Appalachian truffles, which he calls "Lagotto truffles," on his menu for a decade, first at his famous restaurant Palena and now at Annabelle.
“I think the Lagotto truffle can compete with the white Alba truffle,” Ruta said. The White Alba, orT is great, is the most expensive truffle in the world. It has never been successfully cultivated.
Riggan, who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, relies on Elora, an energetic Lagotto Romagnolo dog born in Italy, to find truffles. Elora smells a truffle in the ground 30 meters away.
Truffle hunters once used pigs, but it is more likely that these animals ate the truffle with one finger. Dogs are better behaved and cuter. Although Lagottos, energetic, curly-haired charmers, are traditional truffle hunting dogs in Europe, many breeds excel at this task. Caleb Horton of Southern Tradition Kennels in Georgia finds that black labs make excellent truffle dogs.
The growers
Margaret Townsend isn't looking for truffles. She brings them to the 370 acres of land her family owns in Holland, Kentucky. When she runs her finger over a globe, she sees promise. The Netherlands is located at approximately the same latitude as Périgord, France, home to the black truffles it grows.
Townsend, an industrial engineer by training, retired in January. When she retired, she decided to start growing truffles so she could spend time outdoors. But she tackles her crop with an emphasis on 'process optimization'.
“I was looking for something with a lot of variables that people didn't understand, and I found it in spades,” Townsend said.
Kentucky's latitude can be good for black truffles, orKnolmelanosporum, but the country here and large parts of the South is not. Truffles thrive in soil with a high pH, and Townsend had to dump 20 tons of lime per day. hectares to reduce soil acidity.
Townsend planted her trees grafted withT. melanosporumin 2011. She produces black truffles. She sells them. But she admits her farm is not yet a successful business.
“I'm definitely still into hobby farming,” she said.
Black truffles were first successfully cultivated in France in the 1970s. It has been a struggle to get them to grow in the US.
Tom Michaels, not far from Townsend in Chuckey, Tennessee, produced "the first American-grown black truffles that excited some of the country's top chefs," according to one researcher.2007 article in the New York Times. A few years later, a disease destroyed the hazelnut tree under which his truffles grew. Townsend and others now trying to grow black Périgord truffles have planted trees that are resistant to blight.
"People are starting to learn from past mistakes. These are very expensive mistakes, but other people have made them," says Matthew E. Smith, a plant pathologist at the University of Florida and curator of the mushroom collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
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It is the only place in the south that controls the cultivation of European trufflesBurwell Farmsin Burlington, North Carolina, where many white bianchetto truffles are grown, orKnolborchii, under clumps of loblolly pines.
Burwell's success is based on research by Omon Isikhuemhen, a Nigerian-born mycologist at North Carolina A&T University.
“If you look at the truffle genus, some are very difficult to breed, some are moderately difficult and some are less difficult,” Isikhuemhen said. "The Bianchetto truffle appears to be one that is less difficult to grow. Please note, I did not use the word 'easy'."
The pecan truffle
Growers who have prepared their land for truffles and inoculated their trees with European varieties are trying to keep native truffles out. The most common competitor is the pecan truffle, etcKnol Lyonii. But this native truffle, found everywhere from the East Coast to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, is winning over more chefs and finding buyers. Townsend admits that she currently makes more money selling pecan truffles than she does selling black truffles.
“Until this year, there was very little market for pecan truffles,” says Riggan, the collector.
T. Lyoniiwas once considered waste by pecan growers. Realizing that chefs could buy them, some growers began digging up the truffles with rakes. The chefs were largely unimpressed. Truffles are most fragrant and tasty when ripe. Ripping often pulls up unripe truffles, while also damaging the roots, which can produce more truffles in the future.
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The difference now, Riggan said, is dogs. Several dogs are hunting for truffles in pecan orchards, and their sensitive snouts are close to the ripe truffles.
Andrea Reusing, the James Beard Award-winning chef, has used pecan truffles at her Lantern restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“They have a surprising presence,” she said. “They have a smoky flavor, almost like the flavor of smoked hickory nuts.”
Recycling, which sources its truffles from Riggan, likes that the pecan truffle is a truly American ingredient. She also appreciates that it is still an affordable alternative to an expensive truffle from Europe.
“If you see it as a great democratic luxury product, it is a beautiful story,” says Genbrug.
News tips? Story ideas? To ask?Call reporter Todd Price at 504-421-1542 or email him attaprice@gannett.com.
