Thursday 12 March 2015

Truffles

From the BBC

The first truffle to have been cultivated on UK soil has been harvested from a field in Leicestershire, according to a plant biologist.

Dr Paul Thomas planted the fungus on 20 farms and estates around Britain six years ago.

He found the 39g specimen under a young holly-oak tree.

The entrepreneur, who appeared on the TV series Dragon's Den, said it was the "birth of the UK truffle industry".

After a decade of waiting, Dr Thomas believes that his other sites will also start producing truffles later this year.

I remember this guy on Dragon's Den. He didn't get an investment, but I thought it sounded interesting at the time. If he can make truffles an agricultural product rather than a rare thing that has to be foraged for, I can't see the £400/kg price staying where it is.

4 comments:

Dinero said...

I'm short truffles, long compost.

Anonymous said...

£1200/kg at Fortnum & Mason

Mark Wadsworth said...

Good for him, they're still only glorified mushrooms though.

But truffles are like diamonds or saffron, they are incredibly labour intensive to find-extract-harvest, so they will always be very expensive.

Bayard said...

"If he can make truffles an agricultural product rather than a rare thing that has to be foraged for, I can't see the £400/kg price staying where it is."

So long as he keeps his methods a secret, it will.