HOLLAND, Ky. – Truffles are the culinary equivalent of a diamond. Even though they are expensive many people still want them and wild truffles are becoming increasingly diffictul to find.

Truffles are a fruiting body of subterranean fungi belonging to the genus Tuber. 

They are often located by trained animals, such as dogs or pigs, and are considered one of the most expensive foods in the world due to their limited availability and the challenging conditions required for cultivation.

Truffles are found in Italy and France, where black and white truffles are highly sought after. They’re easily found in the Mediterranean region due to favorable climate and soil conditions. They also grow well in North Africa and Australia. In North America, truffles mostly thrive in the Pacific Northwest, in states like Oregon and Washington.

A surprise to many, the truffle has been discovered growing naturally in Kentucky. A growing movement to make Appalachia and the southeast region of the U.S. the truffle capital of the world is being led by a farmer in southern Kentucky.

Margaret Townsend is owner and founder of NewTown Truffiere, a truffle farm in Allen County, Ky. NewTown Truffiere provides guided hunts, farm consultations and wholesale purchase of truffles.

Townsend spends her days scouring her 25-acre property, led by her truffle hunting dog, Luca.

Townsend has become a key figure in the North American Truffle Growers Association (NATGA). There are currently 200 active members of the NATGA, with 175 of those on the commercial side of things.

“Kentucky used to be a big tobacco producing region, and we’ve been looking for alternative crops,” said Townsend, who became interested in truffles in 2011. “And we’re as good as any, and better than most, in the right conditions, to look at truffle farming. And we need to be the center of the universe in something.”

Townsend planted 25 acres of inoculated trees to grow the most expensive commercially viable truffle, the Winter Black Truffle, on her farm in Holland, Ky. She planted the first trees in 2011 but did not get her first harvest until 2020.

“And that first year, all I got was 13 truffles. So, calling it productive after nearly nine years would be a stretch,” she said.

Townsend refrains from sharing the size of her record crop, but she said she hopes to land at 35 pounds of truffles an acre eventually. A typical truffle weighs a few ounces, but it can grow to more than one pound.

The U.S. market for cultivated truffles is taking off. Truffle farms were virtually non-existent in the U.S. 15 years ago. Today, there a dozens of viable commercial farms. Farmed truffles do not differ in taste or aroma from their wild counterparts, and in cultivating them, producers can better control location, light and irrigation.

Because the farmed truffle industry is so young, farmers are often at a loss to explain why certain regions, farms and varieties seem to thrive. In the end, many, like Townsend, return to wine industry analogies.

“I see the truffle industry in the U.S. like the wine industry,” she said. “It took winegrowers decades to figure out which grapes thrived in certain regions and under what ideal conditions. As truffle growers we are the pioneers. We’re laying the groundwork for the future. We are at an inflection point in North America. It’s exciting to see us grow. The next generation will take off, I think. In Australia, where they’ve been doing this for longer, some farmers are getting up to 60 pounds an acre.”

The highest production numbers she’s heard of in the U.S. is about 35 pounds per producing acre.

Truffles are notoriously difficult to cultivate, and will only produce near the roots of inoculated trees under very specific soil and climate conditions. The most well-known and highly coveted of the fungi is the Perigord Black Truffle, naturally occurring in France. Even there, reliable cultivation can be a struggle.

Known as the black diamond, Perigords are the most highly coveted truffle in the world, with prices beginning at a minimum of $60 per ounce. 

Townsend said the climate and soil quality across Appalachia mean very few adjustments need to be made to the soil to make it ideal for truffle cultivation. The first Perigords commercially produced in the U.S. came out of an orchard in Tennessee in 2007. Since then, similar orchards have begun cultivation in Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia.

The Kentucky Winter White is one of the two truffle species growing on Townsend’s orchard. Named for the Cumberland Plateau where Townsend and Luca discovered it in 2021, the truffle is now highly coveted among local chefs.

“Chefs are really talking about farm to table, and we’re starting to talk about foraging truffles,” Townsend said. “This is just a great angle to bring in when we start to talk about these in Kentucky.”

Winter Black Truffles, known by many as Perigord truffles, are earthy and nutty, with sweet notes. They are the most common farmed truffle in the U.S. and can sell for up to $2,000 a pound.

Other truffle species found across Appalachia include the Pecan Truffle and the Appalachian Truffle.

The most elusive truffle, the Alba, has famously evaded the centuries-long effort of cultivation. Described as garlicky, with notes of fermented cheese, it is deeply musky and looks like an off-white overgrown fingerling potato, crossed with ginger root. It only grows in Alba, Italy, and a secret corner of France. It is pricey at $1,700 an ounce.

The global truffle market is currently valued at about $378.7 million with a potential to grow up to $906.3 million by 2033. There are hundreds of species, but only a handful of edible ones and only a few widely prized, highly valuable types.

“If you don’t want to invest in a big orchard, then get a dog, form a relationship, and go have fun in the woods. There’s worse things to do,” Townsend said.

Aiding in the cultivation of Kentucky’s indigenous truffle, Townsend consulted with the bourbon distiller Maker’s Mark to begin their own truffle orchard at Star Hill Farm in Marion County. They’ve trained their own truffle hunting dog, Star, and are working to cultivate the two species of truffle that lie beneath their 1,000-tree orchard of hazelnut, oak and pecan trees.