Now, bad days would not normally be noteworthy, indeed entire dire seasons were nothing new. We had been trying to outrun them for years. Tracking rainfall, researching, plotting routes and moving around had become a big part of truffle hunting. We had set up bases in different areas, even different countries – all to try and beat a lousy season. For a time, that had worked, but now something else seemed to be afoot. Truffles were disappearing from forests that had produced for decades and we were at a point where we needed to start thinking about what would come next.

As to the cause, there were plenty of theories. Recent studies on the impact of climate change made worrying predictions about the end of truffles, pointing the finger at rising temperatures. On the ground there was no denying that the forest floor was definitely drier, summers longer and hotter. But even when the rains came and temperatures were optimum, still there were far fewer, lower quality truffles. Something more seemed to be changing in truffle forests across Europe.

It wasn’t helping that there were more people looking for truffles than ever. These were now concentrated into ever shrinking areas. While you never want hordes of hunters trampling over truffle grounds, the problem wasn’t just in the numbers. A new, very different kind of hunter had appeared- these were a dangerous combination of enthusiasm and inexperience. Over the last five years they had been wreaking havoc on struggling truffle ecosystems that they had no understanding of.

But even the rise of the vandals doesn’t fully explain the changes to the truffle forests. Some of the decline was happening in places that had always been left alone. Quiet woods, carefully worked and known only to a few were also beginning to fail. It seemed that we were losing truffles before we had really got to grips with their role in the forest. We didn’t know what would come next but it wasn’t looking good.

We knew we were in trouble but when we started the plantation it was not part of a grand plan. We weren’t thinking of truffle growing as a way out , we were simply curious to see what would happen if we stuck a couple of dozen hazel saplings in the soil and threw in a handful of spores. Five years on and we had given these young trees little thought and even less aftercare, so it came as a shock when one of the dogs found a truffle growing there. With the unexpected proof of the possibilities staring at us from the soil, we began to take the prospect of actively helping truffles to grow a lot more seriously

This meant planting more trees, many of these were hazels sourced from local forests that also host the truffle Tuber brumale. We knew we didn’t want to create a monoculture but something more akin to the forests we were used to working in, so we began to make room for oak, hornbeam, acacia, pine and fir- tree and plant species that reflect the natural truffle grounds of this region.

Finding those first truffles on our land felt like a gift . We had been trying to study truffles for many years, but in the forest everything is spread out and difficult to follow over time. Wild truffle areas are open to other hunters, to forestry work and to damage that can undo years of growth. Here was the chance to create a haven where we could observe truffles more closely and with fewer hindrances. A place to properly study and better understand how these delicate systems function,.

In a a controlled space like this, we hope to be able to better track what happens from season to season. Shaping the area ourselves gives us greater control over variables like irrigation, shading and the introduction of spores. It will allow experimentation. Above all, it presents us with a unique opportunity to learn.

There’s a great deal still to learn about truffles but one thing we do know about is the importance of spores. Spores are used in the initial stage of the growing process to inoculate the roots of the host tree. As truffle spores germinate, they form microscopic threads that attach to the tree roots. This is the start of the symbiotic partnership in which vital nutrients are exchanged between tree and truffle . Spores also come in handy later on the truffle life cycle . It has been shown that there are two mating types in truffle reproduction – one of the mating types is present on the tree root, the other mating type is found in the soil. Adding spores to the soil surrounding the inoculated trees should therefore aid truffle production.

Given the valuable nature of truffle spores, we make a point of hoarding them. Throughout each season when we are cleaning truffles we save all our cuttings. We also hold on to a few late season, mature specimens as these are particularly spore-rich. Everything is then either dried or put in the freezer to be used after the season is over.

The best time to spread spores is after the rain and when the temperature is not too high. In the past we would simply scatter any truffle scraps around the tree. This changed a few years back when we were given this recipe by an Italian mycologist. It is not complicated and as he seemed to know his stuff, these days we make a slurry out of our truffle pieces. First they get a soaking overnight in a bowl of rainwater along with a tablespoon of fructose. When I am using the mixture to pot a truffle tree or germinate an acorn, I add vermiculite which should help with root formation. I skip that step if I am spreading spores around established trees.

Truffle tree companies often have their own secret truffle production boosting recipes which I am looking forward to trying out in the future. For the moment though, we are sticking to our simple supplement. When it comes to spreading spores, there are various techniques. We have been trying out three and are recording which method is used in which area of our truffle orchard.

The first method is the so-called Spanish wells or truffle traps. The spore mixture is introduced into narrow vertical holes around the tree . This can increase productivity with truffles forming predominantly in the traps. Genetic analysis has shown a direct link to the spores introduced in the traps and the truffles later harvested there. So far, so good. One problem with Spanish wells is this -the truffles tend to concentrate in clusters. It is always exciting to find a whole family of truffles growing together. However in the case of the traps, it means that the fruiting bodies may be discovered at different stages of their development. In other words, you risk unearthing mature and immature truffles at the same time.

The second method mitigates this problem to an extent as, instead of deep holes, we dig a shallow circular trench around the tree. The spores are spread in the upper soil layers, where truffles would naturally form. Spreading spores in this way should encourage a more distributed pattern of growth, closer to what would occur in optimum natural conditions. If this approach succeeds, the result should be less concentrated truffle production. This is easier to work with as you can harvest the ripe truffles without disturbing those destined for later maturation!

The third way to spread spores uses a rake – apologies, I know that many truffle hunters panic at the mere mention of this tool. In this instance though, the rake is used very lightly to scratch the surface of the ground. This will cause minimal disturbance and as a bonus to truffle production, will gently aerate the earth. With this method, the truffle spores are diffused over a wider area and I suppose that of the three techniques, this one most closely imitates nature. In the forest, truffle spores would be spread in the droppings of small mammals and would end up on the top of the soil so that’s the positioning we are aiming for here.

It will be interesting to see which technique, if any, yields the best results.

Before we head off for the aestivum season next week, I have been spending my mornings in the orchard. It’s early days but poking around here in the soil, I am beginning to get a sense of agency that has been missing these last few years.

While we can, we will still be hunting year round, still chasing kinder weather and better truffle conditions. But now we also have a quieter place to return to – an unremarkable piece of land that we hope will help us find answers to some of the many questions we have about truffles.

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Forty years ago, the area we live in most of the year was home to around 600 acres of hazel orchards. Now there might be ten. And as this style of orchard is no longer financially viable, these last trees standing may not be around for much longer. They are planted on uneven ground and are packed too closely together so the trees have to be harvested by hand. This is costly but besides, there are too few hands available to do the work. The younger generation move to the cities, leaving these rural villages behind with aging populations, old ways and orchards which cannot be maintained.

One such neglected grove lies a few hundred metres from our house near an area I would often take the dogs for a run. January many years ago, one of our truffle dogs Jane slammed on her brakes mid-sprint and did a swift U turn. She had caught a scent on the air and was now chasing the source among the overgrown hazel trees. As I ran behind her, I saw that she was digging and shouted at her to stop. She lifted up her paw to show me the top of a smallish black truffle emerging from the earth. I scraped at the soil with my fingernails, extracted it and cleaned it up enough to identify that it was a tuber brumale. My first thought was that this would be a one-off discovery, but following Jane on a more thorough exploration of the interior, proved me wrong. This species of truffle was growing throughout the entire orchard and I left there some hours later with very dirty, broken fingernails.

This was a great piece if luck – a handy, profitable discovery right on our doorstep. For several years between the months of January and March, the dogs and I would walk this abandoned grove sniffing out that morning’s mature specimens. Every Friday we would drive to the city and sell the brumale to restaurants to be served up to the weekend crowds. Most chefs were hesitant at first, this is not a well-known truffle, but by the second year we couldn’t keep up with demand. Prior to this chance find, I had not been at all familiar with the species myself, so I began reading up on hazel trees and tuber brumale. In my research, I came across an 2008 study by truffle expert Marcos Morcillo who had inoculated old Spanish hazel groves with truffle spores in an attempt to kickstart truffle growth.

The concept was fascinating and there had been some success. However before we could think about replicating the research, there were a couple of matters to sort out. For a start, this was not our land to meddle with. Another problem was that unmaintained hazel trees quickly get out of hand and this was increasingly the case which was impacting truffle production. The usual course with unmanaged, unruly old groves is for the owners to hand over the land to wheat growers who bulldoze the trees and convert the area into industrial farmland. However these elderly ladies who owned this land had no interest in selling. There is very little market value while the sentiment attached to the place was immeasurable. As young sisters they had played among the trees during harvest time and these were trees which their grandparents had planted in the 1920s. Razing the place to the ground would be a loss not only to their family legacy, but on a much wider scale. Turning it over to wheat would mean ripping apart an entire ecosystem- the orchids, lizards, butterflies, dormice and woodpeckers and the countless other species co-habiting with the hazels and the truffles.

I went by the owners’ house and over coffee and sweets, asked if they would allow my family to manage the land. My proposal to clear the orchard and maintain it, in return for half of the hazelnuts and whatever the land produces -went down well. The owners get to have the odd nostalgic picnic on their old stomping ground. We can look after the truffles properly and as a bonus get a few sacks of nuts each August. Meanwhile, the hero of the story, one of the last few surviving old ecosystems, gets to see another day.

We got to work immediately on clearing the forest which is a huge task after over a decade of neglect. These old varieties of hazel tree are spread out and require more pruning than the compact modern varieties. As well as working with the trees, we have been adding spores to the soil in areas where truffles are still growing and spots where they used to grow. This spore mixture is a simple concoction of dried truffle scraps blended with fructose, spring water and vermiculite. It is fed to the trees while we tend to the task of creating the right kinds of growing conditions for healthy truffle production. This might involve tweaking the shape of the tree and the amount of light that can get through the canopy. We know that some ground covering is favourable, possibly helping to regulate temperature but we don’t want too many weeds underfoot.

I would love to be able to report that all this pruning and clearing lead to marked increase in truffle yield. Sadly not, severe pruning of the host trees means that there will likely be few truffles for the coming seasons. Projects like these take time and a great deal of patience and even then, I don’t expect this project to a financial success. Fortunately success can take various forms, many of which are a little trickier to quantify than numbers in a bank account. As we experiment and observe and eat hazelnuts, there is an occasional feeling of what these more intangible successes might look like. Perhaps it is the excitement of growing in our understanding of the natural world and our connection to it. Or maybe we are finding joy in tidying. I am not sure but I feel something grounding and deeply satisfying to moving forward and allowing the past to co-exist, building on the fruits of past labours rather than tearing them down.

Marcos and others like him, Paul Thomas in the UK, Charles Lefevre in the US, Alessandra Zambonelli in Italy are pushing the boundaries of truffle research right now. With many more mycologists at work around the world, a large portion of these studies are geared towards informing commercial truffle tree plantations. What though if those of us who work in the forest can take knowledge from the science and apply it to wild growing areas? Are there low impact ways to grow truffles without the need for all the resources used to start a cultivation from scratch? Could a project like this give value to remaining old style hazel orchards throughout Europe and ensure their survival? And what about struggling natural truffle ecosystems, will new information from the labs impact their future?

In time, there may be clearer answers to these questions, the beginnings to solutions to our current challenges. For now though, I am very excited to be caught up in this challenge of growing hybrid truffles, half-wild, half-cultivated. By a stroke of luck, I have a unique chance to study truffles up close, to better understand these fungi which have become so entwined with my family’s life. Like many hunters, we have spent years blinkered by the monetary or culinary value of truffles, forgetting that their principal worth is ecological, tied to their role in promoting forest health. Hunters tend to be constantly looking down in the dirt, but when you remember to look up, you are reminded of the work these amazing fungi do. The trees themselves are signalling to us to look beneath them. The truffle trees beckon us, standing out as they do, as the healthiest, most well-nourished, vibrant specimens in the forest.

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