tuber borchi on 8 or 9 year old pinus in Somerset meadow
I was watering this tree in april , may and June and I am sure this accounts for the truff's good size. My field is a good example of where not to plant or grow truffle . The only land I can experiment with and you learn so much more doing it the wrong way .
There are truffle naturally in my locality but all live on the limestone high above where our field sits; to that end I have experimented with making differrent soil structures and copying environments I have truffle hunted in other parts of the UK and Europe .
The soil naturally a ph of 4 .5 and sitting in a meadow with a shallow loam before solid clay . I mixed a 5mm limestone grit into the clay as opportunity for the worms over time to break up clay . I expected trees to produce in 18 years and was depending on the force of nature to mix well the limestone grit and clay . Also want a slow release of lime over the years to create a neutral ph . I did not expect such quick result and hence the truffle being formed inn the limestone grit
We managed to produce some small borchi in year 6 an 7 but very small and poor quality . This year a very good size fruitit that was able to push the the limestone grit as it grew to be a very good size of a lemon .
My past experience of eating and kitchen handling of the tuber borchi is akin to my childhood memories of candy floss and theWinchester fair ground . After a while they disintegrate or vanish into a fizz skim and body . This truffle behaved more like the magnum pico and produced a great flavour in the truffle butter and all the shavings I kept from the cleaning are still in a good state of preservation ready to apply to my existing trees.
The eating experience was 9 out of ten also very much enjoyed by Jim who shared the lobster and borchi with a toasted white floured flat bread