A journey which has made David Smith a happy man.
The Dunedin-based director of Brooker Travel Group has harvested 80g of an edible fungi capable of fetching up to $4000 a kg overseas.
"They are sensitive souls," he said as he held up the largest of the white truffles he and wife Dr Hallie Buckley collected from their Hawea property this week.
The couple are believed to be one of only a handful southern hemisphere growers to successfully produce the "high-risk" bianchetto truffle.
"The exciting part is that we have done it right," he said yesterday.
After buying the 4ha property a decade ago, the couple decided to take a punt and try their hand at producing the notoriously fickle fungi.
Enlisting the services of Dunedin-based truffle expert Dr Ian Hall, the couple planted 70 "fungus infected" hazelnut, oak and pine nut trees, added more than 30 tonnes of lime to their soil, and secured the property with rabbit-proof fences.
"They are a wildfood crop. You don't really know if they will produce year after year," Mr Smith said.
The fruits of their labour were revealed on Monday, seven years after work began, by a dog trained to seek out the pungent underground mushroom.
"The dog would turn on a 5c piece and then bang, hooked it out with his paw.
"You could feed a whole restaurant with this."
And that is exactly what is happening with the golf ball-sized truffle weighing 28.4g, which sold for $114. It has been couriered to an Italian restaurant in Ponsonby, where it will feature in a veal and truffle sauce tonight.
Hitting paydirt with the 80g of truffles and more in the ground, the couple will now consider planting more trees.
"You have to be prepared and put the time in."
While Hawea was too cold for the more expensive black truffles, it was pleasing white truffles could be produced in the area, but the success was no reason to rip up grapevines just yet.
Exports of the seasonal delicacy to the European market were a possibility, but even increasing tree numbers was no guarantee of future strikes.
"There is a risk, but a risk we are more prepared to take.
"Now, it is real. Before it was just a dream."
Bianchetto white truffle
(Tuber borchii)
• Darker than Italian white truffle.
• Has garlic flavour.
• Harvested during winter, early spring.
• Can fetch $4 a gram overseas.
• Bianchetto can be hosted on beech, black poplar, hazelnut, oaks, European limes, cedar, larch and pines.
Source: Trufflesandmushrooms.co.nz
