What do You Know About Mushrooms and Truffles?

I am always interested in meeting individuals who are committed to growing really unusual crops, and David Falkowski, the founder of Open Minded Organics in Bridgehampton, NY certainly fits that category.  David grows the most beautiful and delicious gourmet mushrooms including blue oysters, king oysters, shiitakes, chanterelles, and hen of the woods.  We met last summer at a local farmer’s market near my home in East Hampton and he told me a bit about himself.  David has always been interested in organic farming, sustainable living, and fungi.  About four years ago, he became certified as a professional mushroom cultivator, and started successfully growing mushrooms in a little room in his house.  It did not take long before local chefs took notice and he was soon able to build a proper facility in which to grow his mushrooms.  Open Minded Organics is a truly artisanal business and David has his hands in every step of the process.  Because mushrooms are so perishable, David prefers to keep his business local, selling to area restaurants and gourmet shops.  However, his delicious mushrooms have recently found their way into establishments in New York City and I will certainly find a place for them in my holiday menus.

Another fungi that I just adore is the black Perigord truffle.  Exotic, earthy, fragrant, and decadently delicious, black truffles grow underground and are praised by chefs all over the world. Look at this snapshot that I took of the black Perigord after the filming of my truffle hunting trip at Keep Your Fork truffle farm in North Carolina.

Here am I with Jane and Rick Smith of Keep Your Fork Truffle Farm in N.C.(They are friends of Franklin Garland)

Once, only found in the Perigord province of France, truffles are now successfully cultivated and harvested in North Carolina thanks to Franklin Garland.  Franklin traveled to France to learn about truffles and became confident that he could produce them in the North Carolina climate.  These fungi need a host plant in order to grow and survive, and in this country, those hosts are hazelnut trees.  Franklin begins by sprouting hazelnuts.  When the saplings are six weeks old, using a trade secret, he inoculates them with the fungus called tuber melano sporum.  The trees are planted in the ground and grow for five to six years before the first truffles appear amidst their roots.  Specially trained dogs are used to sniff for truffles, at which point the prize is carefully dug up.  More truffles continue to grow year after year.  Franklin also sells his inoculated trees to anyone who wants to start a truffle farm.  With the tobacco industry in decline, he hopes that North Carolina will evolve into a truffle capital.  The season for fresh truffles is December through February and Franklin and his wife, Betty, would be happy to send them to you mail order.  You can visit them at garlandtruffles.com.

Click here for the full recipe or click on picture below!

Click on the picture below to learn about common cultivated mushrooms, courtesy of Everyday Food.

Comments

[Margie]

The best part of this blog is the fact people are investing in food for the future. We all need postive people seeing how to keep the land alive.
Thanks.

[Becca]

Interesting! We have neighbors that hunt for mushrooms in our woods, but the whole idea scares me a bit -- don't know how to spot the good from the poisonous!!
But I do enjoy them in cooking -- when I purchase them from the store!
:)

[PAULINE]

Martha,
I love mushrooms, but never had the opportunity to experience the taste of a truffle. Thanks to your article, recipe, & resource I'm looking forward to tasting my first truffle!
Regards,
Pauline

[andrea]

As a child i never like mushrooms, and as an adult i love mushrooms, but i noticed that lot of people tend to over cook the mushrooms- i personally never know how to cook mushroom right

[Alcea Alba]

I love sampling and experimenting with new varieties of mushrooms. I recently purchased the most wonderful and freshest Lions Mane and King Trumpet mushrooms from a seller at the San Francisco Farmers Market. The seller was most knowledgeable about his mushrooms and had an impressive variety to choose from. I'll be working my way through all of his delicious mushroom varieties throughout the coming year.

[Mrs.W]

My cooking experience is limited to plain white buttons and portobellos, both large and small. However my husband is anti-fungi, I'm afraid, so whatever I do cook containing mushrooms has to be limited to what I can eat.

I'd be interested in learning more--what the different mushroom varieties look like, how to store, and what varieties are truly available in small town America.

[Roka]

I love mushrooms, sometimes I will just place them raw (washed and fresh ) in a green salad. Always great with eggs! Love this blog!

[Andrew Ritchie]

I suppose you've heard about the record-breaking truffle that was auctioned for $200,000 in Hong Kong? It will be dished up at an exclusive banquet in Hong Kong.

Wow!

-Andrew R.
Ottawa, Canada

[Genie O.]

Wow, what a sad loss for you but how blessed you were to have "Mom" for 93 wonderful years
She'll be missed by all who saw her!
Genie

[Ted Dolinski]

As a "Kindred Spirit" I always appreciated the heritage your mother instilled in you -- and in your full acknowledgement of the many joys of Polish.

Keep her and your good work in her memory.

[Ted Dolinski]

As a "Kindred Spirit" I always appreciated the heritage your mother instilled in you -- and in your full acknowledgement of the many joys of Polish.

Keep her and your good work in her memory.

[amy in calif]

I was watching a news show from my hotel room in San Jose about a month ago. It was San Francisco news. They interviewed a woman from Petaluma or Santa Rosa that has a truffle farm. I had no idea they grew in North. Calif.

[Anita]

I love mushroom, especially the wild mushrooms I used to pick up with my mom and dad back in Poland. Every year we would make a family trip to the forest to pick up some mushrooms, admire the nature and enjoy our time togheter. My Mom would make some special dishes, such as pierodis, soups or just marinated them. There is so many variaties of wild mushrooms. They taste unbelivable!

[lucy]

This entry reminds me of my visit to the most famous truffle market of Provence last winter season. I live in Provence with my french husband and children and we decided to venture out on the most bitter of Saturday mornings. We arrived at the market to find much surreptitious dealing - car boots open and scales measuring, hundreds and hundreds of euros changing hands. If it were not for the watchful eye of the local police I would have believed the activities of the street entirely illegal. So many precious truffles bundled up to travel off to the great restaurants of Paris, the Cote d'Azur.... I had never smelt a truffle until that day, but once I stepped from the car the perfume was unmistakable and one I will surely never forget.

[Mary Sanders]

I watched your show on Feb. 5, and am interested in the truffles recipe that was made by Martha and Charles on the show. I understood that it would be on the web site.

[Christine Connor]

The first time I heard of a truffle was from the movie, "No Reservations", and let me tell you up until this moment right now I had never known what a truffle was. Martha! You can eat those black things??? On the video you said they are fragrant, can you perhaps explain what kind of flavor or smell I can compare them too, because I've never had the opportunity to see one in person. They are so strange looking:)