July 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology
July 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology
July 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology
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swinburne JULY <strong>2010</strong><br />
HORTICULTURE<br />
AUSSIE<br />
AMBITIONS<br />
FOR GOURMET<br />
TREASURE<br />
A <strong>Swinburne</strong> horticulturalist has<br />
travelled to the horticultural and gastronomic<br />
home <strong>of</strong> truffles to help develop truffle<br />
growing in Australia<br />
BY KELLIE PENFOLD<br />
PHOTO: iSTOCKPHOTO.COM<br />
22<br />
PHOTOS: COLIN CARTER<br />
A greenhouse full <strong>of</strong> young truffle-infected trees at Agri-Truffe, near<br />
Bordeaux in France, visited by Colin on his study tour.<br />
A natural oak forest near Bologna, Italy, produces the<br />
famed white Italian truffle (Tuber magnatum).<br />
A truffle hunter and his dog seek out French<br />
black truffles at Cabó in Spain.<br />
IT WAS WHILE TRUFFLE hunting in an ancient<br />
oak forest in Bologna, Italy, (followed by a<br />
simple meal in the hunter’s home <strong>of</strong> fresh<br />
white truffle shaved over spaghetti) that<br />
Australian horticulturalist Colin Carter<br />
decided he had found nirvana.<br />
Colin, a <strong>Swinburne</strong> <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Technology</strong> horticulture team leader, was far<br />
from the world <strong>of</strong> truffles as he knew it.<br />
With a year-old, one-hectare, 400-oak-tree<br />
‘truffière’ on the outskirts <strong>of</strong> Melbourne and<br />
a nursery specialising in inoculated oak trees,<br />
which he runs with his son Nathan, Colin has<br />
witnessed the quite rapid development <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Australian truffle industry. It now produces<br />
Key points<br />
Truffles are underground<br />
‘mushrooms’ that grow on<br />
the roots <strong>of</strong> trees in autumn<br />
and winter.<br />
Truffles were consumed<br />
as early as 400 BC.<br />
On a fact-finding overseas<br />
mission to improve Australia’s<br />
truffières, <strong>Swinburne</strong>’s Colin<br />
Carter found the industry<br />
steeped in tradition.<br />
about 1.5 tonnes annually <strong>of</strong> the highly<br />
prized edible fungus.<br />
Awarded an International Specialised<br />
Skills Institute (ISSI) TAFE Fellowship<br />
(Skills Victoria) in 2008 to study truffle<br />
production overseas, a journey to France,<br />
Italy and Spain at the end <strong>of</strong> 2009 unveiled<br />
to him an industry steeped in tradition and<br />
struggling to find its way in a modern world<br />
demanding consistent supply.<br />
Colin travelled with Nathan, who has<br />
studied the industry as part <strong>of</strong> his university<br />
studies in agricultural science and commerce,<br />
to examine the truffle from its oak forest<br />
roots and hunter markets, to the latest<br />
horticultural research at the <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
Bologna in Italy and a specialist agricultural<br />
truffle school at La Montat in France.<br />
Although the pair saw the latest<br />
developments at the university, it was time<br />
with the truffle hunter that inspired them.<br />
“We were taken right back to the foundations<br />
<strong>of</strong> the industry. At times we could hardly<br />
believe that we were right at the heart <strong>of</strong> the<br />
truffle world – something we are striving to<br />
emulate in Australia,” Colin says.<br />
Truffles are unique underground<br />
‘mushrooms’ that grow on the roots <strong>of</strong> trees,<br />
which either naturally host the fungi (such as<br />
in the truffle forests <strong>of</strong> Italy and France) or