The Netherlands, truffle country? Wild truffles have been found here for the first time!
Good news for everyone who loves local food and truffles: wild truffles can be found in at least ten places in the Netherlands. It’s the first time this precious delicacy has been found in our chilly little country.
Where previously people mainly searched for truffles in France and Italy using specially trained pigs and dogs, they have now been found in the Netherlands too. Bioprocess technologist Judith Evenaar, who grows truffles herself in her truffle orchard in Renkum, told AD that she found truffles in the river region and in Limburg.
According to culinary author Onno Kleyn, it isn’t all that strange. “Quite simply, no one had looked for them until now. The dogs used for this are hard to find here, and there’s a good chance that the truffles are too small or not appealing enough. The grey truffle, or Tuber uncinatum, which is also known as the Burgundy truffle, is also found in southern Germany. So why not here?”
Growing truffles yourself
In addition to wild truffles, truffles are also being cultivated in the Netherlands — by Judith. This was long considered impossible, but she is proving otherwise. For the first time, after 6.5 years, she has now harvested truffles in her truffle orchard in Renkum.
She hopes more growers will follow her example, so that the Netherlands becomes a true truffle country. That’s why she also sells her own truffle trees. But before you enthusiastically plant a truffle tree in your backyard: it’s not easy. “There’s about a 60 percent chance that it will take,” says Onno. You need the right soil and a great deal of patience. “You may have truffles after six years or so. But it could also take 15 years.”
Cheaper truffles
Truffle lovers are probably cheering at the news. Because hey, more supply = potentially lower prices. And at 150 euros per 100 grams for black truffles and 399 euros per 100 grams for white truffles, that would certainly be easier on the wallet. But it isn’t all good news.
Truffle importer Daan Witteveen says in AD that it could also mean global warming is progressing even faster than we thought, and that this is why truffles have now started growing in the Netherlands too. Not a matter of a friendly fungus that has been growing here for years, but a stark effect of climate change. “Nature is behaving strangely.”
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