Oregon Truffle Festival: Picking up the vibe of a modern-day gold rush

Friday, 8 a.m.: Conference goers have gathered in a windowless hotel meeting room to mine their future. They’re not here to learn about opening yogurt franchises or selling mops to their friends, but to study truffles: how to find, cultivate and sell them to the highest bidder for up to $1,000 a pound.

Linh Ta is an accountant from Seattle who read a feasibility study on the profitability of domestic truffles. Now, he’s positioned himself at a table in this Eugene meeting room, notepad handy, eyes glued to PowerPoint slides detailing how to till the land, water the inoculated seedlings, prune, pick and then dip into that pot of gold.

He is surrounded by mega-caffeinated Americans and Canadians, all prospecting for information. One 20something couple confessed over coffee to never having tasted a truffle, yet they’re here to start a new business. There are also silver-haired husbands and wives, sitting side-by-side, facing the speakers – scientists, researchers and marketers -- with a gleam in their eyes. Wouldn’t it be nice,if we could retire on truffles? you can almost see them thinking,

Are there any hobbyists here? Doesn’t look that way. Each have paid $625 to attend the Cultivation Seminar and Growers’ Forum at the Oregon Truffle Festival. And they're serious, says moderator Jim Trappe.

It’s the first day of the festival and an energy is building, driven by the same instinct that created the Gold Rush: The idea that you can get rich by selling something precious that nature creates and is there just for the taking.

This energy is fueling the need for instant information from the world’s top-tier truffle countries: France, Italy and Spain.

Depending on what the experts had to say throughout the day, the mood was UP, then down.

During his presentation on Establishing Your Truffle Orchard, Spanish truffle researcher Dr. Carlos Colinas temporarily slowed the go-go mentality. “You cannot have the idea that you want to cultivate truffles then go to Wal-Mart and get going,” he says. A year or more is needed to decide on trees and find a source, then years to grow the trees that hopefully become good truffle hosts. Some experts estimate that only 20-30% of trees in a good plantation produce truffles.

In the back of the room, a bearded man wearing a camo cap raised his hand and asked Colinas if there is a minimum acre size to cultivate a truffle. Colinas said it all depends on personal economics. Forty acres nicely supports a family of four in Spain. But a lone tree could produce truffles.

At the end of his 45-minute presentation on site and plant selection, he roused the crowd by saying, “You do all these things and you will get your first truffle and you will be happy.”

Christine Fischer of the Forest Technology Center of Catalonia, Spain, warned of working “hard, cold, mean winter mornings” harvesting truffles. But then she showed an encouraging slide of a typical day’s haul – dozens of round, largish black truffles – from the region she studies.

Truffle broker Vincent Jeanseaume of Sabatino Tartufi electrified the would-be farmers with these happy stats: His company sold 30% more truffles in 2009 than 2008 and at higher prices. He supplies specialty stores like Dean & Deluca and the highest-end restaurants. But truffles are becoming so mainstream, he says, that he was recently contacted by Costco.com to sell fresh truffles. “This growing market is not going anywhere,” says Jeanseaume, who worked in a New York art gallery before joining the truffle supplier in 2001. “It’s only going to grow, especially the consumer market.”

When a conference-goer asked Jeanseaume how many truffles a beginner would need to have to be a player in this lucrative market, Jeanseaume made the whole process seem easier than eBay: “If you have one pound, you UPS it to me and I receive it the next day and you get paid."

Each of the speakers emphasized one aspect that could burst a lot of get-rich-quick bubbles: The truffles they're talking about are the most desirable ones with strong, compelling flavors. And the science of getting to there is sketchy.

But the downer of reality didn’t last long. At the end of lunch, a strawberry shortcake was served topped with black truffle cream. Oh, so that's what it taste like?

The participants were then powered up and ready for more.

For more info: Oregon Truffle Festival, January 29–31, centered in and around the Valley River Inn, 1000 Valley River Way, Eugene, Oregon, (503) 296-5929,  www.oregontrufflefestival.com