Stalker was amazed to read about a Donegal man involved in one of the early successes in the cultivation of truffles.
Peter Cleary, General manager of Eissound, Spain was involved with Salvador Arotzarena , owner of a small canning factory , who had discovered a method of inoculating the roots of oak trees with the spores of the costly melanosporum truffle, aka the Périgord truffle.
With Arotzsrena, they bought 750 hectares of hillside near Soria and planted 400,000 oak trees to inoculate with the truffles, many of which were exported to top French restaurants.
Cleary learned recently that Ebro is considering selling off some parts of the business, including Salvador’s truffle farm near Soria. Would he consider buying it back for himself? “No. Farming sounds very romantic but it is a risky business. There are so many things, including the weather, against you. I grew up on a farm with three brothers. My mother was obsessed with education and determined we would not have to go back to the farm.”
