Oregon Truffles

[rexs13 at my-dejanews.com]

In article <725jmj$6iu$1 at nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
  dwheeler at teleport.com wrote:
> In article <Pine.SUN.3.95.981106113001.16238A-100000 at garcia.efn.org>,
>   kcbolete <kcb at efn.org> wrote:
> > Ok D.Wheeler (or who ever) I think I'm hooked thanks to you.  Now that I
> > think I know what Oregon White truffles are,  can you possible give me
> > insight on tree,
>
> Tuber species have been found closely associated with Grand fir, Oregon White
> oak, Douglas fir, chestnut, Western hazel, and wild honeysuckle, among other
> hosts.
>
>  soil,
>
> Truffles produce exudates which tend to create friable soils. Soils which are
> very loose and soft often have truffles.

You make an excellent point Dan. It only took me a decade or so to figure that
one out on my own.

I have noticed that Tricholoma magnivelare also create their own soils. The
soil under matsutake looks similar in Central Oregon, west slope of the
Cascades, east slope of the Coast Range and on the Coast. I believe that
there is a paper out or coming out on this from the PNW Research Station at
OSU. I don't have the author's name handy as I am not writing this in my
office but I met him last year at OSU.

>However, I have found commercial
> quantities of truffles on hard-packed old roadbeds. Usually, truffles like
> either a humus cover or moss cover in my experience.
>
>  and habitat to make my journey to the coast or
> > cascades this weekend more pleasant.

As most naturally occuring dense truffle populations are located under 1000
feet and most land under this altitude is private property, please contact
the owner of the land BEFORE you dig. You may be invading someone else's
patch that they have propagated with the intent of commercial harvest. The
landowners that I work with (and myself) would certainly not appreciate
incursions into these areas. There are enough problems with the commercial
Abominal Truffle Men (they do leave evidence of their existance but are quite
elusive) without having newbies jumping fences at will.

>
> Truffles are more abundant the further west you go. West of the Cascades,
> Chris Maser has estimated that the California Red-backed vole is the most
> common mammal of forested or plantation land. Many *foresters* blame these
> voles with girdling their seedling trees. However, examination of fecal
> pellets by Chris Maser and James Trappe have proven the majority of vole diet
> is composed of truffles. A live truffle

I am sure that you mean vole.

>received by Dr. Trappe on a Friday
> evening was weighed, put in a covered pen with lots of water and an equal
> weight of fresh truffles. On Saturday morning, Dr. Trappe returned to the lab
> and found the truffles gone and the vole dead. An autopsy showed the vole had
> died of starvation. It therefore follows that voles need *a lot* of truffles
> to keep from starving, probably their body or more each day.

And I always wondered what happened to all of the truffles:-{).

>
> According to Chris Maser, a mature California Red-backed vole weighs about
> 16-20 grams. Thus a single mature vole would require 16-20 x 365 = 12.48 to
> 16.06 pounds of truffles each year to survive. Maser has estimated in private
> that forested lands west of the Cascades contain 500-3000 voles per acre,
> meaning that a single acre of forest must also produce 6240 to 48,180 pounds
> of truffles per acre per year to support that vole population.

There must certainly be alot of starving voles this season. Those living on
Leucangum spp. have certainly all expired unless they are hibernating until
mid- winter. I have seen numerous chewed Rhizopogen spp., a couple of
passably ripe and even two sterile Tuber sp. (probably T. gibbosum) specimens
chewed so far. The voles must also eat other fungi as I have been seeing
apparent vole signs and colonies of epigeous mushrooms in various stages of
being devoured. With the large number of small truffles that I uncovered and
left today, the voles in that patch are feasting tonight.

Finding markets for all of the truffles that I collect should not be a problem
this year.

>
> A few of these truffles have culinary value...
>
>  Thank you for your help.-kc
> >
> > Resume life as normal.
> >
> Life during truffle harvest is anything but normal. ;)
>
> Daniel B. Wheeler
> http://www.oregonwhitetruffles.com

Thank you for all of your help (knowingly and otherwise) over the past ten
years Dan.

Rex Swartzendruber

Webpages under reconstruction at http://members.tripod.com/~rexs13 (please
pardon the disorganization).

***Hey, get outta here Mr. Threepoint- those are MY shrimp mushrooms.***

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