We headed up to Eugene , Oregon the other weekend to attend the Cultivation Seminar at the
Second Annual Oregon Truffle Festival. The seminar and festival were put together by Dr. Charles LeFevre, who we are purchasing our 600 truffle-infused trees from, and his associates up there. They did a terrific job of organizing and kept us busy for three days straight so kudos to them.
As for us budding truffle farmers, we learned a lot from our wonderful instructors, Dr. Carlos Colinas and Christine Fischer, but less than expected in cultivation seminar as a whole. What we mostly learned is that cultivation is so new, especially in the U.S., that no one can really give you a straight answer on anything. Or, perhaps, no one wants to be liable for giving an answer that may eventually be proven incorrect. So we basically learned that anything may be possible in the world of tuber melanosporum cultivation aka truffle farming and that if you want to learn more you should just dive right in and find out if it works for you.
That said, we did meet a lot of nice and interesting people at various stages of their truffle farming endeavors. Some are dreamers, some are planners, some are a few years in, some have a few trees, some 400 trees, some no trees. We learned that you train a trufflehound like you'd train a drug-sniffing dog, and that virtually any breed with stamina will work (we're already arguing over what types of dogs to get even though our trees haven't arrived!). We also learned that the truffle cultivation seminar may be something to attend only once, then plant, and then wait a few years until you see how your farm is doing, then return for the grower's forum if you have questions, or answers to help others along.
Best of all for us, we finally saw, smelled and tasted our first truffles!
Here we are getting our very first whiff of a french black truffle recently harvested in Tennessee of all places!
I'd like to offer the disclaimer that we don't normally look that strange and that the unphotogenic gene runs in the family...
Either way, I think the picture reflects our trepidation and dismay at the crop we're banking on. Neither of us appears to have the palate to appreciate a $1,000 piece of fungus, which will probably be helpful as we won't be sneaking truffles behind eachother's backs. Call me simple but I would choose a box of Cheez-Its over a 4 ounce truffle any day.
Still, at least we now know what they look, and smell, like. Here is a picture of the infamous tuber melanosporum, aka Perigord or french black truffle, that we will be growing:
And here it is up close and sliced in half. You can see the marble-like appearance that means it's ripe. It has an earthy but potent smell that makes me wonder how anyone ever felt the need to dig up this little, smelly dirt-clod looking thing and place it in their mouth. As I said, I'm simple...
We ate that one soon after the photo was taken. It was grated into some excellent Spanish olive oil and drizzled on some bread slices. Personally, I think I liked the olive oil more than the truffle. I guess I'm still cultivating my hoity toity-ness.
Oregon has its own native truffles known as the Oregon white and Oregon black truffles. Here is a picture of the oregon white truffle:
Seeing as how we truffle queens both live off the power grid and rely on propane for heat, we immediately recognized the pungent odor of garlicky propane being emitted from these dime-sized tubers. After making this observation a scientist informed us that the Oregon white truffle odor does indeed have the same chemical structure as the scent they add to propane and would be in the propane family of odors. Two points to the truffle queens for recognizing noxious odors!
We saw some other types of truffles, looked in microscopes at micorryzhae (which look like little corn dogs), and after two days of learning about truffle history and farming, left feeling fairly confident in our endeavor as we appeared to have the climate and soil most similar to where the truffles are found in Spain, France and Italy.
After spending Friday and Saturday in class, we attended the Grand Truffle Dinner with 298 other food and truffle afficionados. The meal had an appetizer, three courses, and a dessert, all of which were prepared by James Beard award winning chefs and included truffles. Here is what our menu consisted of:
AMUSE BOUCHE - Tuna Crudo with Celery-Anchovy Salad & Truffle Vinaigrette (By Chefs Stephanie Pearl Kimmel & Rocky Maselli of Marche in Eugene)
FIRST COURSE - Oregon Dungeness Crab Salad with Black Truffles, Apples & Shell Beans (By Chef Vitaly Paley of Paley's Place in Portland)
SECOND COURSE - Timbale of Fingerling Potatoes & Truffles with a Potage of Leeks & Root Vegetables (By Chef Greg Higgins of Higgins Restaurant & Bar in Portland)
THIRD COURSE - Papillotte of Coquelet with Truffle Port Compote & Celeriac Mousseline (By Chef Philippe Boulot of The Heathman in Portland)
DESSERT - Truffle Pear Tarte Tatin with Sour Cream Puff Pastry, Roasted Hazelnuts & Truffle-Honey Ice Cream By Chefs Cory Schreibner, Michelle Vernier & Dustin Clark of Wildwood in Portland.
In my opinion, the amuse bouche, first course (my favorite!!!) and dessert were awesome. The second course was okay and I like the idea of a timbale (a mashed potato plop in the center of a bowl of gravyish soup). The third course looked terrible on a white plate and my chicken inside the pastry was dry but I did like the little chicken legs surrounding it as they were tasty. Then again, I'm not a food critic or even close to being a gourmet so take that how you will. Either way, here's my only clear picture of the dessert, which was way better than it looks:
In the end we had fun, met lots of interesting people, and got a zillion ideas for experiments to conduct as we start our truffle farm this month. We also formed a Yahoo Group because everyone said they wanted to keep in touch. Of course, no one has joined yet. If you want to join or check it out, you can click on the link to the right.
Next up: Setting up the farm, complete with pictures!
He's a shy guy and didn't want me taking pictures of him so I had to hide in the barn and shoot through the dirty window. In case you're looking for a tractor guy, Pat's the kind you want. He has long hair, smokes incessantly, likes cash, and isn't afraid of a little hard work.
His little tractor (a John Deere 70) did quite well but I think we'll use one with bigger rippers to do the final pass before we plant. Still, it got everything fluffed up and confirmed that we have nice, loamy soil to work with. We also picked up a bunch of garbage - beer bottles, old car parts, various pipes, and even and old black and yellow California license plate from 1963 - and some huge rocks that I'll use around the yard for landscaping some day.
