This material has been produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand under contract to the Ministry of Education. It has
been written to assist teachers and schools in their delivery of the
Technology/Hangarau curriculum statements. The project is jointly
co-ordinated by personnel from the Technology
Education New Zealand (TENZ) and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists
and Technologists (NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of
the material is carried out by a national project advisory group.
In London restaurants, a chef can pay up to $9 000 for a kilogram of
fresh Perigord black truffles. The truffle is a type of of edible mycorrhizal
mushroom which when added as a garnish to food is considered by many
connoisseurs to take the flavour of a meal to exquisite heights. Here
in New Zealand the small number of truffles produced are sold direct
to restaurants for around $3 000 a kilogram In Australia, off-season
and sold in the canned form, truffles return $A2750 a kilogram.
Edible mycorrhizal fungi like truffles grow in a close symbiotic relationship
with the roots of host trees. Scientists at Crop and Food Research's
Invermay Research Station have developed a technique to infect the roots
of hazel and oak seedlings with the truffle spores. In Gisborne, the
Oaklands Truffiere (truffle farm) planted its first 400 of these trees
in 1988. When the first 2kg 'fruit' were harvested in 1993 it looked
like a truffle boom was set to hit New Zealand in much the same way
as Kiwifruit had done in the 1970's. At that time Oaklands Truffiere
was one of several dozen properties around New Zealand which had been
planted with the inoculated seedlings .
However, years later Oaklands was still the only plantation actually
producing the truffles and it was thought that soil conditions on the
Gisborne property may be unique and difficult to replicate elsewhere
in the country. Despite the lack of evidence, Crop and Food Research
was convinced that truffles would appear on other properties around
the country planted with the inoculated trees. This belief was recently
confirmed by the announcement of discoveries in Bay of Plenty and Canterbury
truffieres, and within days of the announcement the entire NZ stock
of truffle-bearing oak and hazel seedlings had been snapped up.
The small golf ball/tennis ball sized truffles grow underground beneath
the trees inoculated with the fungus. European production and harvest
of the Perigord black truffle has been for many years shrouded in secrecy.
Farmers with specially trained truffle-sniffing dogs or pigs have for
many years jealously guarded their private knowledge of the French and
Italian woodlands where the delicacy traditionally grew. Anyone trying
to find them by digging randomly under the tree risks destroying the
underground network of fungal mycelium that feed the growing truffles.
Recent research
Recent research and development has helped to unlock the truffle's secrets,
and over the past twenty years many new truffle plantations have been
established in Europe and North America. Production in these countries
now fetches an estimated $500 million each year, but fresh truffles
are still only available during the northern hemisphere season which
stretches from December through to March. Outside of this period the
world's chefs must make do with the canned variety.
Here in New Zealand we have the opportunity to establish a reliable
out-of-season supply of this valuable delicacy. At the Gisborne site
commercial quantities have been harvested between May and early September
since 1997, and last year 65 kg was collected from just 0.6ha. In one
instance 1.5 kg was produced in one season from just one tree. Oakland
Truffiere is one of the few with trained animals to search out the truffles
– most of the other New Zealand plantations are smallholdings
of only 10–20 trees and do not have access to such specialised
assistance. In the places where truffles have been located recently
one truffle was found on the surface, and the other very close to the
surface. Scientists at Crop and Food Research believe that the sites
now producing suggests that truffles can be grown in prevailing climatic
conditions between Canterbury in the South and Warkworth in the North.
Soils in which the fruiting trees are presently growing cover a wide
range, including the Waipaoa silt loam of Poverty Bay and North Island
volcanic ash.
In Canterbury, Ohoka Park Truffierre has five acre rural blocks for
sale with swimming pools and mixed establishments of 200–250 truffle-inoculated
trees. Based on the Oaklands success, it is claimed that such plantations
have the potential to yield 50–80 kg per year. Similar developments
are being investigated in Northland and Bay of Plenty.
More than 10 000 truffle-inoculated oaks and hazels are now planted
on properties around the country and these numbers are expected to increase
rapidly. It takes some months to produce an inoculated seedling and
all this years stock is fully accounted for. Crop and Food Research
is already taking orders for 2001.
Opportunities
for classroom activity
Material like this which has been sourced from press releases provides
an entry point into a variety of classroom activities in technology.
Given that production of truffles is presently restricted to only a
few regions within New Zealand it provides a stimulus for exploration
of related needs and opportunities which could lead on to possible student
technological practice
Generalised market research could be carried out to find out more about
:
the nature of the market specifically for truffles – size,
location, consumer profile etc
how the fruit is packaged and transported to reach their target
market.
problems experienced in the harvesting, packaging, and transport
of the fruit.
New Zealand growing conditions can be well suited to a range products
(including edible fungi) which are easier to grow than the truffle,
less expensive to buy, and with as yet untapped potential. This story
could be used as a starter into student technological activity.
Given the expanding nature of the industry research could also be targeted
at inoculation and propagation of seedlings – incorporating specific
technical skills and regulatory and quality control issues associated
with the production and use of truffles and other edible fungi.
Examples of specific technological practice which
could result
Creation of advertising packages to promote the widening of the
national production base for the fruit.
Local feasibility studies for production – siting of plantations,
process design, etc.
Developing new culinary opportunities for using edible fungi.
New packaging and presentation techniques for transportation and/or
marketing of the fruit.
