"Bob Weinberger" wrote in message
...

"Daniel B. Wheeler" wrote in message
om...
From The Oregon Journal, Oct. 15, 1980

Truffles...they're not trifles

snip of interesting article

Dan,
Since this is not the first article you have posted showing considerable
interest in growing truffles
by entrenpreneurs about 20 years ago, I have to ask - after about 2
decades how many operations are
making any significant net income by raising truffles in the PNW?

Bob Weinberger



I have visited several plantations on a number of occasions where trees were
planted in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the assistance of Gary Menser
that had established Tuber gibbosum (a local truffle) mycelium on the roots
at the time of planting. I have yet to collect an Oregon White Truffle from
any of these stands. That does not mean that it is impossible to produce
fruiting bodies using this method. Charles Lefevre is currently
experimenting with this method of truffle propagation but I have heard no
results from his attempts to date. Results have been noted from introduction
of inoculant materials by other methods but yields in these areas are still
dependant on nature and timber management practices. Irrigation may or may
not help.

It is nice to have a hobby but if one is going to be a farmer, then the
scope of the income is THE significant factor.

I believe the question should be: "Are there currently any truffle growers
in the PNW able to make a living solely from truffles produced on their
property?" I believe that the answer is a resounding, "NO." I would be more
than happy to be corrected. It may be possible to make land mortgage
payments and land tax payments on truffle production areas and still pay
household bills solely through truffle farming some years if your own your
land free and clear, but if you are not harvesting the timber on the land
you are not realizing the full potential income from the property.

If one owned the amount of land that Weyerhaeuser, Simpson or Longview
Fiber do, it would be possible to eat and pay most of the household bills
for several families solely by collecting truffles, but the mortgage and
maintenance bills on the large properties required would go unpaid except
through sales of timber. Truffle yields are too unpredictable for the small
landowner to derive a consistent living income and pay for their properties.
Some areas may fruit well for several years and then not produce any or very
few truffles for another several years. I do know that on some years a
property owner may be able to pay the taxes on the property from the
truffles produced. Even deriving this amount of income from truffles
requires a lot of dedicated planning and management as truffle collection
may consume more time than the landowner is able to afford and still perform
the proper management practices required to generate a living income from
the property through harvest of timber. Unless they have a younger
generation on the farm that needs seasonal work, the best plan of action for
a property owner or manager is to lease the land to an established collector
and work with them to manage the crop of naturally occurring truffles while
augmenting unproductive areas with inoculants.

Rex Swartzendruber
trufflezone.com