Late season supply
As harvest currently becomes measured in mere handfuls per dog-hunt hour,
...it is looking to be an early end to truffle season this year, although with strange weather patterns it's not yet quite certain,
there is normally a substantial September drop in demand even without doom & gloom financial reports in the media, which will see us close farmgate sometime in early September this season.
Sustained cold weather slowed production in August, while delivering some of the best quality seen in the past few years!
Post-covid the majority of our customers are coming to farm-gate for direct purchase, thus our priority was farm-gate supply,
online ordering was updated with final supply which shipped 28-30 August
Thursday Farmgate sales are now cancelled, and it is now quite unlikely we will open for Father's Day weekend.
Past customers are still welcome to call to ask about supply.
Online orders are definitely closed.
Supplying postal orders is a time-consuming, labour intensive endeavour;
Eg, 10-15minutes per order to pick and vacuum pack with best possible quality, packaging materials and a 20min round trip to Post office,
Mid-season this substantially interferes with actual harvesting, so it is great that post lockdowns, most customers make the trip for in-person selection.
Regrettably the refrigerated courier option with a $55 weekly collection fee became unviable at this year's level of online orders. It had potential for faster packing times and savings.
We will re-evaluate online ordering in 2024. It may even discontinue entirely given 2022, 2023 levels of support, with only special orders for past customers...
- or possibly see a market competitive, low-grade price range added -sourced externally, and offered alongside our usual quality...
If it is worth employing someone to pack it while we harvest the good stuff... - probably not though, our Brand is worth more than any market demand for lower quality.
Those that seek cheaper truffle, would get better results from "truffle oil", which is all synthetic aroma
Are all potatoes or tomatoes marketed as equal quality, or value for money? Unsurprisingly, neither are truffles, and the differences are even more pronounced.