Toil leads to milestone season for Tassie truffle pioneers

TWENTY FIVE years down the track, the Terry family is preparing to celebrate the historic moment that they dug uo their first truffle, which kickstarted a small but thriving local industry.

That first truffle was grown on Tim and Adele Terry’s property and it was also the first one to be produced in the southern hemisphere.

At the time, Mr Terry said many people thought they were crazy. 

“There was certainly a lot of that going around, and you know what these things are,” he said.

“No one had ever heard of them, and I hadn’t heard of them either until I was fishing with a very good friend and he brought it up ... and from there the inquisitive brain got to work.”

That friend was Peter Cooper who formed the company Perigord Truffles and started growing trials with a number of farmers around the state, including the Terrys.

It took four years, however, for that experiment to pay off and the first truffle to emerge.

“Once we grew the first truffle at our place it took off really,” Mr Terry said.

“The theory was if you tipped Tasmania upside down it fits into Provence, but that’s about all it does do, the weather, soil, vermin and everything else is completely different.”

Mr Terry remembers clearly the day they discovered the first truffle and so does his daughter, Anna, who was five years old at the time.

“I remember because I had never seen Dad with a cigar before and when I saw him with a cigar, I thought something has happened,” she said. While four years seemed a long time, Mr Terry said in truffle production terms it was quite fast, because trees often took up to 12 years before they start producing.

After producing that initial truffle, the Terry’s set about expanding their operation and trying to grow local demand.

“Initially there wasn’t really any domestic awareness, so the majority was going overseas,” Anna said.

“A lot of European chefs were excited about having access to truffles here in Australia, but they weren’t going to put it on their menus because  most Australians just wouldn’t know what it was.” 

Anna said as production across the country increased awareness spread and local demand steadily grew.

Mr Terry said one of the advantages, they had in the export markets was the off-season production because at that time all truffles were being grown in the northern hemisphere.

Initially, Mr Terry said being able to consistently produce truffles was a steep learning curve, especially when it came to things like soil, pest management and irrigation.

“Hardly anyone in Europe irrigates because they don’t have any water, so all these things we thought of as huge advantages, we had to learn about how to do it our way and not the European way.”

Initially the Terry’s started truffle harvesting with a pig called Ellie. 

Pigs are the traditional animals used in Europe to hunt truffles, but Anna saidthey present some unique challenges, including their large size.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” she said.

“I went out there with flip flops one day ... I soon learnt why that wasn’t a good idea. We transitioned to using dogs not long after that.”

While they had managed to grow the country’s first truffle, Mr Terry said it was not always smooth sailing after that.

“It’s good to look back on it now, but there  were some very hard times along that journey and some wonderful times as well,” he said.

“It’s nice to sit back now and there are three generations of us now eating truffles with Anna and her child and it’s very  satisfying and rewarding now, but it hasn’t always been beer and skittles.”

These days the Tasmanian Truffles farm and business are run by Anna and her brother Henry.

Anna manages the farm and has also established a successful agritourism business which includes a farm gate shop and on farm tours.

Henry oversees the processing and product development side of the business which value adds the truffles grown on farm and their weekly stall at Salamanca.

Anna said they had been very fortunate that they had been able to focus on the parts of the business that really interest them.

After the winter truffle production was well established, in 2008 the family decided to expand into summer truffle production as well.

The aim was to spread production out across the year and that has paid off.

Mr Terry said they now only have about eight-10 weeks in the year where they do not have fresh truffles in the market.

Anna said while her father had taken more of a back seat in business, he still regularly joins her when they are hunting truffles in the harvest season.

“She gets me on the mower a bit too,” Mr Terry said.

“Adele and I get a lot of satisfaction out of watching Anna and Henry have a lash and be able to watch them do the things they’re interested in.”

Anna said her interest in agritourism was sparked when a group of TasTafe chef students visited the farm in about 2010.

“Afterwards they were all hooked on everything I said and really enjoyed it, and I thought wow, they were really interested,” she said.

“So that sowed the seed I guess and since then the agritourism side has formed very progressively and organically. 

“We like to do it really well and for me, I have an enormous amount of pride in sharing the family story and what mum and dad have done and sacrificed to make this possible and the journey over the last 25 years.”

Anna said she hoped educating people who came to the farm would make them appreciate the products.

“Like Dad said, it hasn’t all been rainbows and butterflies there have been a lot of challenges over the years,” she said.

“So, to be able to share that with people and have them go away with an appreciation that the next time they eat truffle, they will understand why it costs as such as it does. 

“Because someone has put love and energy into a dog and crawled around in minus four-degree frost and dug it up hand, so that labour of love is something I really want to get across.”

To celebrate the 25th anniversary on the first weekend in July the family will be hosting dusk truffle hunting tours, which will be followed by wine and truffle products including a new baked truffle brie which will be served around the fire pit.

To find out more go to www.tastruffles.com.au