Archived truffle notes, and harvest observations from the 2013 season
- 2nd September, small truffle rescued from the heat, edible quality but not saleable.
- 29/8/13, Last weeks unknowns located and harvested along with a few new truffles.
- 20/8/13 Some absolutely divine truffle this afternoon. Quite a few surprise discoveries, and better than expected truffles at the known locations. Also better overall than any week in the preceding month.
- New spot marked on Saturday while pruning a small section, too dangerous to look Sunday (high wind and nearby eucalypts)
- 14/8/13, Some nice truffle. Seems back to normal in terms of ripening speeds etc. Truffles ripened as expected from last week, and theres signs of one to two weeks on nearly all remaining known truffles. So still a chance of a final few end of the month, if nothing happens to them.
- 13/8/13, half of the truffiere checked, a few definites for harvest this week, a few new truffles on trees thought to be finished for the season.
- 11/8/13, checked and found the 200g of expected weekend truffles had ripened, 50g still unsold
- 9/8/13 checking a few in notes that were missed
- 8/8/13 Found a new producing tree, large brule 120cm radius, with truffle at 90cm, subdued grass rather than bare earth. Overall weekly quantity matched hopes for season, but weather has trashed this week's truffle too 1.5kg scrapped.
- August. Frosts throughout the end of June triggered the final ripening process, with the first full harvest on 4th of July. Latter half of July saw warm weather and increase in spoilage rate of ripening truffles.
- 31/7/13 has produced a few nice truffles, (late night harvest) but quite a few of last weeks clearly underripe truffles are now rotten or overripe (ie. compost), suspect there were too many warm days. Overall harvested amount not matching expectations past two weeks.
- 25/7/13 Harvest turned out fairly miserable, 70% went to compost bin, causes unknown, possibly warm weather last week
- Tentatively a 30% increase in weekly yield over last year (now 7 years since planting).
- 24th July, 2 further for harvest, others weekend or next week. ~300g deep rotten found, was unlocated 1st group, yering hunt, top nice aroma but wrong colour-never ripe, bottom blech, left for investigation of cause.
- 23rd Interesting day, one third of truffiere searched, 3 marked for harvest, 4 others discovered -best next week, 3 rotten removed (one was 600g, 200g, 100g)
- 17/7/13 Four new locations marked with some slight sweet top note aroma's, truffles not yet located and left undisturbed -checking further Wednesday, last weeks potentials located and some harvested. Incoming rain Thurs/Friday will subdue aroma's below detectable levels
- July 13/7/13, special event, a truffle hunt in conjunction with Chateau Yering went well, although the pièce de résistance was only found after the hunt during a final scramble to fulfill Chef Mathew Macartney's required amount. A 700 gram beauty which is our largest ever, and likely the largest Victorian truffle to date!!! Blog entry
- 10/7/13 total of 1240g harvested, some nearly ripe ones located and reserved for the truffle hunt with Chateau Yering guests this Saturday
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Wed/Thur 26/27th June Yielded only two truffles, rest of the ripening ones still not quite ready, although there might be some nice meals this weekend. "Bear" the truffle dog was quite enthusiastic about several spots on producing trees, paw marking them as having a truffle present. These spots were left undisturbed as there was not yet enough aroma to disturb the soil.
So the expected ripening due to recent frosts has occured and next week should mark the start of the season proper. It takes 5-10 days for a mid season truffle to mature from the first sign of aroma, depending on weather and when first detected.
- Sat 22nd. Ground still frosted at 2pm, great! A few very nice aroma's located while manually checking the known truffles, Dog was on strike today, possibly lamenting the loss of some personal items at the Vet's this week, or just too cold for him.
- Sun 23rd. Overall weekend has shown several truffles which should benefit from the cold and mature shortly. A few previously showing aroma, which failed to reach edible quality, have softened and been removed.
Currently finding and protecting surface truffles. During June we will continue checking the trees, including truffle dog hunting for quality control, determining the proper start of season and general data collection. Information regarding our 2013 season will be continually updated on this site with increasing frequency as the season approaches.
- Wednesday 19 June -will be harvesting 4-5 truffles, quality to be confirmed but smelling pretty good. -19/6 only 2 proved of saleable quality, one sold, one to be eaten. Others inspected continuing to develop. Early season is a pain to predict truffles, nothing develops as expected, even when making allowances for slower ripening.
- Saturday & Sunday 15-16 June
- Monitoring hunt, and checked the truffles currently developing aroma. Expecting good results.
- 15/6 2/3rd completed, 2 good quality truffles ready in time a preorder this week, nice aromas developing on several others, likely ready last week of June
- Sun 16/6, the section contains quite a few producing trees and there are a number known to be ripening from last week. -The last third of the truffiere revealed a few more to be harvested mid week, with at least medium bodied aroma.
- Thursday 13/6/13 -postponed, Excess rain washes aromas into the soil.
- Monday 10/6/13 -New tree and a few more truffles with aroma commencing. Chance of a few truffles soon, with an impression of proper season start in 2-3 weeks.
- Sunday 9/6 found 3 truffles showing signs of maturing into something decent end of this week, very nice aromas but still too firm, they will improve further. Further truffles marked by dog will develop within next two weeks. -the 3 were harvested and managed to perfume some eggs, but overall lacking in essential qualities
- 5/6/13 Four truffles developing aroma and marked by dog. A couple of these "might" develop into a passable early truffle Its nice to smell truffle again!
- Weekend 1/2nd June a quality control hunt. Now hoping to find any early ripening truffles, and protect any new emerging surface truffles. Overall very happy indeed with the outlook for this season.
- Last weekend May 24/25 found and protected a few more truffles and another newly producing tree (excited about that one, it had magnificent brule but no truffle for past two years)
- 13/05/2013 Near surface (1") truffles are becoming known via truffle "push" with the soil rising and cracking above them,
{photos on twitter feed @yarravalleytruf}
5 more producing trees confirmed in past week, 1 new producing. >50 truffles now located. - 05/05/2013 Approximately 45 near surface and exposed truffles have been located, most of considerable size. There are five newly producing trees so far and of the seven that skipped production last year -four again have truffles. The surface truffles have all been covered with extra soil and by last years experience, at least half will survive to see a kitchen.