It’s the Season for Truffle Trees…
April and May are very busy months for American Truffle Company as it's inoculation season for new truffle trees that will be shipped to our client partners this winter. Because the process involves rigorous testing and verification before the inoculation, preparation actually starts much earlier, in February. We typically grow truffle trees only to order, but we do inoculate a [...]
ATC Partners with Feast it Forward
After a very successful collaboration for the fifth annual Napa Truffle Festival, ATC has partnered with Feast it Forward to further promote all things black truffles — from cultivation to culinary, growers to chefs. Led by celebrity host and entertainer Katie Hamilton Shaffer, Feast it Forward is a culinary and wine media network that goes beyond the usual plate, bottle, [...]
Dr. Paul Thomas: Truffle Talk with the BBC
There was a time when wild truffles could be found throughout the UK and Europe’s woodlands, but with the eradication of the old forests for building material, firewood and agriculture, most of the wild truffles were eliminated. In fact, today over 95% of all truffle production from France alone comes from cultivated sources. In a recent interview with the BBC, [...]
Making history: American Truffle Company’s Chief Scientist Dr. Paul Thomas has harvested the FIRST EVER cultivated British truffle.
The BBC and other leading news outlets have featured American Truffle Company's (ATC) Chief Scientist Dr. Paul Thomas in perhaps the most significant news in the truffle world in generations: the first commercially farmed truffle using the scientific methods that he developed was just harvested in the UK.
First UK-farmed truffle harvested
By Claire Marshall BBC environment correspondent Dr Paul Thomas believes it will be the start of a whole new industry 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 [...]
ATC’s Chief Scientist Dr. Paul Thomas on the BBC
American Truffle Company's partner/chief scientist Dr. Paul Thomas (based in the UK) created the highly rigorous scientific methods for truffle cultivation practiced by ATC. He started six years ago with a planting in the UK and has since had harvests with partner orchards in Spain and Australia. This harvest in the UK is significant because it's the first successful commercial [...]
Ramping up for big planting in North America
Plus, size doesn't matter and other news... Summer is the time for soil amendment for a new truffle orchard, in time for the typical winter planting of truffle trees. We’ve been busy closely collaborating with our newest client partners, one of whom is planting a large orchard in excess of 25 acres. ATC has been leading the search for the [...]
Growing Black Diamonds In The Napa Valley
Nob Hill Gazette (July) THEN (2008, Munich): A man walks into a restaurant: a young Stanford graduate (Bachelor of Science degree in engineering; Master of Science degree in biology); an Italian bistro. He (let’s call him the techie) orders butter-tossed tagliatelli with black truffles shaved on top. He never had truffles before; it was a life- changing experience. Back home [...]
7 Tips, Tricks & Recipes for Cooking With Truffles
Napa's Chef Ken Frank Discusses 7 Tips, Tricks & Recipes for Cooking With Truffles LocalLuxe/San Francisco Guide ... Below are seven truffle tips, tricks, recipes and lies that were unveiled by Ken Frank, Executive Chef/Owner of Michelin Star La Toque restaurant at The Westin Verasa Napa. Chef Frank says he has eaten more truffles than anyone he knows. He bought [...]
Australia’s Largest-Ever Truffle Weighs 2.5 Pounds
Australia's burgeoning truffle industry dug up its largest-ever specimen earlier this week, in what some are calling a true sign of competition for France's black Périgord truffle industry: The Guardian reports the 1.172 kilogram truffle (roughly 2.5 pounds) was unearthed at New South Wales farm Yelverton Truffles. In a Facebook post documenting the find, Yelverton growers note that "our scales were not large enough, so it was taken [...]
Fake truffles and “bad chefs” get French growers flustered
March 2014 “Unscrupulous” French chefs are spraying cheap Chinese truffles with synthetic aromas to make them smell like the more expensive and upmarket Black French variety. According to AFR, French growers are frustrated with chefs that are “doping” truffles from China and the Himalayan foothills, worth €30 ($40) per kilo, to make them look like black French truffles from Périgord, [...]
New scientific data on black truffles plus hunting desert truffles
Dr. Paul Thomas [In April], we were in Morocco presenting data at two academic conferences on underground fungi. The first report presented investigates the climatic impact on the distribution of three key truffle species and the second is a large study (343 data points) on the impact of tree growth and development on truffle production. Both reports are being prepared [...]
ATC Collaborates with Landowner and Napa County
ATC is investigating the feasibility of truffle cultivation as a form of a riparian buffer that can provide landowners with an agricultural commodity that simultaneously provides an array of ecosystem services... To start, ATC is working with a landowner (Traina Property) on a truffle orchard that is within the Napa River Restoration Oakville to Oak Knoll (OVOK) Reach. Napa County [...]