When my wife, Debi, and I began attending a Reformed Presbyterian church 27 years ago, we noticed the culture there was, among other things, one where most mothers stayed home with the children. Having grown up in other denominations, this was not always the case in our experience. We both wanted the benefits that lifestyle would bring to our children, so we decided to forgo two full-time incomes and work to make that the case. Debi was able to work part-time from home for a while, but when we decided to homeschool our kids, we needed to find something with an even more flexible schedule.

We brainstormed various and sundry cottage industries we might start to augment our single income. We considered a lot of different ones, and eventually settled on our current coffee-roasting business. I say all this to mention another idea we engaged, which took 20 years to come to fruition. It was the planting of special oak and hazelnut trees that had their roots colonized with truffle fungus.

Truffles are an underground fungus and a culinary, although seasonal, staple in France and Italy, but they are enjoyed throughout the world. Australia now produces a large amount, and the state of Oregon has native truffles that are said to be of similar fragrant quality. If I had to describe the aroma, I would say garlicy-fruity-earthy-mushroomy all at once. The aroma of the truffles is so strong that in restaurants the waiter may use a special razor slicer to grate very, very thin slices of truffle onto your side dish of risotto, for example.

Our foray into truffle farming began around 2002 when I read an interesting article by a member of the French equivalent of the USDA, Dr. Gerard Chevalier. He was at the forefront of the science of propagating strains of French truffles onto the roots of certain varieties of oak and hazelnut trees. I noticed in the article that the region in France where truffles naturally grow is on the same latitude as the state of Wisconsin. However, due to the Gulf Stream that goes across Europe, the weather there is warmer, almost like a state a little further south of Wisconsin—like southern Indiana, where we live. But the most interesting geographic fact mentioned in the article, at least to Debi and me, who both have our degrees in geological sciences from Indiana University, was the composition of the bedrock underlying these truffle regions. It was limestone!

We both have deep family roots in this region and both had grandfathers who worked in the local limestone mills and quarries. We have always been proud of that connection and of the world-famous dimension stone that has gone out from Indiana to well-known structures such as the Biltmore Mansion, the Pentagon, and the Empire State Building. In 2008, when we started our little home business, we named it Quarrymen Coffee Roasting Company because of our pride in this unique southern Indiana building product and our relationship to the folks who worked in the local limestone quarries.

Because of the limestone connection, and climate similar to the French truffle regions, we were convinced truffles could be grown here in southern Indiana. We contacted Franklin Garland of Garland Truffles in North Carolina in 2003. Franklin was inoculating the roots of very particular and very young sapling trees with the truffle fungus. Franklin told us only about 10 percent of all the people putting truffle trees into the ground ever actually see truffles produced. He noted you have to have a high soil pH and lots of calcium (from the limestone) in the soil. We had both, so we proceeded with our plan.

The truffle fungus does what other endophyte fungi, including the beloved morel mushroom, do for trees. An endophyte is a fungus that lives inside another plant. They attach to the tree roots from the beginning of the tree’s life and remain an integral living fungus intertwined with the living tree root cells. If all goes well, that symbiotic relationship will last for the entire lifetime of the tree. The fungus strands, called mycelium, grow out into the soil and convey needed micronutrients back to the tree, and the tree responds by feeding the fungus with carbohydrates it produces in its sap. Upon receiving our trees, we got them into the ground and watered them daily for the first growing season. Then we waited.

For 20 years, our kids grew, our roasting business grew, and our truffle trees grew. During that time we noticed that just around the dripline of each of the trees there was a bare patch of soil with very little vegetation. This area, known in French as terre brulee (tair bru-lay), or scorched earth, is indicative that the truffle fungus is very much alive and well and doing its job for the trees. A good sign!

In late June 2022, we were returning from berry picking and cut through our truffiere (true-fee-err), or truffle orchard. My sharp-eyed wife spotted something odd poking through the surface near a hazelnut bush well inside the terre brulee. Eureka! We had found our first truffle! Upon looking, we found some others at the surface. Most truffles are underground and require either a pig, or a trained dog, to help find them. You cannot simply go rooting around the trees, as it will damage the tree roots as well as the sensitive truffle mycelium in the soil biome of the truffiere.

We began making calls to folks in the academic world of truffles. One of my earliest contacts 20 years ago was a grad student in Sweden named Christina Weden, who was planting the same strain of truffle trees on the Swedish island of Gotland in 2002–03. She was a colleague of Dr. Chevalier, and she is now a professor at Uppsala University. I emailed her, and she remembered me and was happy to hear of truffle production here in the Hoosier State. We also sent dried samples of our truffles to the mycology lab of truffle expert Dr. Greg Bonito at Michigan State University. One of his grad students performed a DNA sequence of our truffle and confirmed it to be Tuber aestivum, or the black summer truffle.

While the black summer truffle may be the most common of the three commercially important truffles in Europe, behind the Italian White and the French Black Perigord truffles, it is a newcomer as Hoosier local produce. Here in Bloomington, there is also an organic farmer who planted the same type of trees about eight years ago and may be in truffle production in the next few years. I have been in contact with the owners there, and if we can get a trained dog to visit, that particular puppy will be most welcome in at least two locations here in our county.

Another group has planted over 1,200 of these truffle hazelnut trees in Parke County. As those were only planted in 2022, it will be some time before those trees are in production.

Though relatively expensive, truffles will not be a second source of income for us because our production amounts will not be that large. We just see it as an amazing example of God’s intricately designed creation. We work to plant the seeds and, in His timing, the Lord gives the increase.

Now the only thing to do is to decide on a new family member to help us find the truffles—canine or swine!