REPORTAGE – Along with Périgord, these lands are the best in France for growing black truffles. At the Saint-Jean-d'Angély market, brokers are engaged in a frantic race to acquire the precious merchandise.
In years of scarcity, it is rumored here that margoulins scour and plunder the truffle fields at night, lights hidden under vast cloaks, to satisfy the appetite of a market as discreet as it is insatiable. Charente-Maritime does not have the reputation of Périgord. Its lands, according to connoisseurs, are among the best in France, with Touraine, where Cardinal Richelieu was the first to promote the cultivation of black truffles, Tuber melanospores. This opportunistic mushroom with musky, rainy earth and hazelnut aromas remains a delicacy consumed on all the greatest tables on the planet.
As the end-of-year holidays approach, its price per kilo will easily exceed 1000 euros. A boon for the little hands of this artisanal and family business, often passed down from generation to generation. The Association of Truffle Growers of Charente-Maritime has nearly 120 members in the…
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