The growing environment of truffles

Truffle is the general name of a kind of mushroom, which has extremely stringent requirements on the growth environment, and can not be artificially cultivated, and the yield is rare and expensive, so Europeans rank truffle with caviar and foie gras as "the three most precious dishes in the world". Among the many species, the French black truffle and the Italian white truffle have the highest evaluation. Let's take a look at the growth environment of the truffle.

Morphological characteristics of truffle

Truffle fruiting body such as block, ascus spherical, oval, brown or brown, some as small as beans, and some as large as Fuji apples, with polygonal warts on the surface, reflecting red luster, and a depression at the top. Meat (sporogenic tissue) is white at first, brown or gray later, and turns black when it matures. The section is brown and marble, with a forest-like damp smell and dried fruit aroma to lure small animals to come to look for food and bring spores elsewhere to breed.

The growing environment of truffles

1. Truffles grow in the soil and are stem truffles attached to the roots of pine trees. They contain large amounts of water and trace mineral elements such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and fluorine. Unlike ordinary mushrooms, mushrooms are soft and juicy, but the texture is harder. Prefer alkaline soil, high-quality truffles are mainly produced in calcareous topographic areas, such as Alba in Italy, Perigo in France, Yunnan in China, etc., all located in calcareous topographic areas.

2. The nutrients of truffles come from attached roots and soil. If truffles have been grown in a place, the nutrients of the land and plants will be completely absorbed by truffles, and nothing else can be grown for a period of time. In the process of growing up, I can't stand any subtle environmental changes, and it's amazing to be picky about the environment, but at present, Western countries have achieved semi-artificial growth.

3. Truffles especially like to grow under pine, oak, poplar, willow, hazel and Linden trees. The color and smell vary from tree species to tree species. Today, mechanized farming methods, soil sprayed with pesticides, excessive or low rainfall, and changes in forest tree species are also the main reasons for the massive reduction in truffle production in the 20th century.

Distribution of producing area of truffle

1. Croatia: the white truffle is found only in Italy and Croatia in the Balkans. The color is light gold, light brown (beige) or light brown, with brown or milky white patches or small textures, varying in size. The small one is the size of a golf ball and the big one is like an apple. In a good year, the world output of white truffle is only 3 tons, compared with the annual output of about 35 tons of black truffle, we can imagine its precious degree.

2. Piedmont: the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy is located in the upper reaches of the Po River, surrounded by the Alps to the west and north and the Ligurian Apennines to the south. White truffles are produced in Alba, Guineo province in this region.

3. Provence: black truffle Provence is the most important producer of black truffle in the world, accounting for 90% of France's production. The main production center is concentrated in Tricastin in the north, with an annual output of about 30 tons.

4. Sala: Sala is rich in black truffle and foie gras. French famous foie gras manufacturers are almost all concentrated here. Sala cuisine does have a place in southwestern French cuisine.

5. Chinese mainland: China also produces truffles, which are very similar in shape to French black truffles, with relatively small scales on the outer skin and fine white stripes inside, mainly growing in the fibrous roots of pine trees, which is also the origin of the Chinese name "truffles". Mainly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, mature Chinese black truffle with a complex mushroom flavor, is a smell that people can not understand.

6. Taiwan, China: according to the latest report, there is also a small amount of truffles growing in the high-altitude mountains of Taiwan Province, which is very similar in shape to that of France or the mainland, and belongs to close relatives, but Asians generally do not have much contact and understanding of this delicacy, so they do not operate commercially.