Available truffle notes, and harvest observations from the 2012 season

2012 Season started properly in July and ran until end of August, with a few early truffles in June, and only a few stragglers in the latter half of August.

Archived notes of interest regarding the development of the 2012 season in the Yarra Valley.

  • Conclusion, Seven of last years twenty-four producing trees have not produced truffle this season. A couple more of last year's trees only started revealing truffle in the past two weeks so some dwindling hope remains for the other seven.
  • Update 30th August; Only one new truffle found this week on a tree which commenced production in past few weeks. 7/24 of last years producers failed to reveal anything this season, it now seems sure they won't. The known 200g was removed and judged unsaleable.
  • Update 23 August: No further new ones on 23rd. 2 nice new truffles found on Wed 22nd, but better harvested Friday. Proves there is still nice truffle to be found.. 3 further truffles still too hard to harvest, but regard them as having low odds of maturing properly, firm and without aroma.
  • Update: 18th August, found a very nice new 56g truffle, removed 2/4 remaining located truffles (weird, they were still hard but had nasty odours = compost bin material)
  • Update: Wed 15th August 11pm; Some nice truffles harvested, a few larger than expected, and with lovely aroma. Half were known truffles, but 250g was from newly discovered truffles. Next week will be interesting with only four prelocated truffles left.
  • Update 8th August: A 305g truffle harvested today (sold to preorder), further 250g mediocre quality (only suit pieces), and a 400g bad truffle. Dissappointing but next week looks like it will be better.
  • Update 31st July: Confirmed quite a few to be harvested tomorrow >700g and still some I haven't checked recently, one ~250g, and nearby two new deep truffles located today. This tree was one of the first to produce 8th July last year.
  • Update 30th July: >300g tagged for Wed harvest from 1/4 of the truffiere, few new truffles found today, a 360g harvested today with quite a few cracks/damage -new recipe book experiment time! Chance of frosts mid-week, only had 4 this year.
  • Update 21 July:NEWSFLASH, a 554g truffle! -it found a home with top Melbourne restaurant.

    554g truffle

  • Updated 15th July, inspection this weekend of only half the truffiere, found a new producing tree and located a few more truffles. Several are expected to be ready by this week, two harvested today. A 500g soft specimen was removed, probably frost damage.
  • Updated 12th July, 3:20pm. As expected last weekends frost brought many truffles to fruition, 1130g harvested, largest 310grams! A new tree presented an even larger one, however it was soft/rot damaged, 593 grams!
  • Update 8th July, Two nights of frost over weekend have helped, putting the final touch on few truffles. Will be harvested tomorrow or mid-week. Three newly producing trees located.
  • Update 6th July, Hunt went entire day, still need to cover some ground. Generally there are more commencing ripening, but its currently taking about 3 weeks from first aroma's. A couple of large truffles with medium aroma, that smell really nice, but still too firm. Given the current slow maturation, it may well take a full week before they reach their proper potential, they will clearly develop into great truffles.
  • Update 2nd July, the expected ~100g turned out to be 225g and rotten on bottom, others still not ready..., 3 new undamaged located, one >120g. Ripening is slower than expected.
  • Update 1st July, rain made it not worth checking as it interferes with ground aroma. at least 250-500g will be harvested this week, some Monday morning.
  • Update 28th June; several truffles harvestable in next few days, overall ripening indicating increasing amount per week shortly.
  • Update 26th June, found several commencing ripening aromas but likely 2-3 weeks for most of them, unless further frosts speed things up.
  • Update:21st June, Two nice truffles, 237g & 131g truffles were harvested (sold to preorder)
  • Update 14th June 2012. First saleable truffle, season has started in Yarra Valley, next week should see ~250g and greater quantity at the end of the month.
  • Update: June 6th, First properly ripened (but damaged) truffle of season found June 3rd more ripe truffle on the way.
  • Update: 30th May 2012: Aroma's are continuing to develop on a couple of early truffles, and it seems likely they'll be ready in the next week or two. Only a few this early in season, but a definite start.
  • Update: 26th May 2012: Some preseason truffles have been triggered by weather and insect damage, but aroma was poor and there's nothing of saleable quality yet. There are now a few undamaged truffles with a very faint whiff of development, it seems there may be some in early June.
  • Update: April 2012: Here I'll update what I currently have available truffle wise, any reserved truffles are not included.

During pruning of the hazel shoots in March, near surface and exposed truffle was found on 24 trees. Half of these are new producers, and a rough estimate of size without disturbing the truffles leads to an estimate of 1-2 kilograms sighted. Surface truffles like these formed around one quarter of what was discovered last year, so the season is looking good.

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