Our Story
Welcome to Willowdale Truffles, a proudly South African producer of premier Black Winter Truffles (Tuber Melanosporum). Our journey began in 2011 with the tentative establishment of our first orchard, and took a large step in 2016 when we harvested our first few truffles to become one of the first farms to ever successfully cultivate Black Winter truffles in South Africa.
Since then we have expanded to 30 hectares of truffle orchards comprised of nearly 18 000 trees, in the process becoming the largest single source producer of Black Winter Truffles on the African Continent.
We ship our fresh truffles weekly directly from the farm gate to customers worldwide during the Southern Hemisphere winter months of June, July and August.
Grown at an altitude of 1450m above sea level in the mineral rich soils of the Southern Drakensberg, we are able to produce Truffles of exceptional quality and aroma during the Southern Hemisphere winter
Our Truffles
With our orchards situated at an altitude of 1400m above sea level in the mineral-rich soils of the Southern Drakensberg, nourished by intermittent summer storms and brought to perfect maturity by our cold crisp winters, we are able to produce Black Winter Truffles of exceptional quality and aroma during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Aligned with stringent quality control and grading processes, and a dedication to efficient delivery methods, our truffles are rapidly gaining a favourable reputation amongst award winning chefs and on quality menus globally.
With 30 hectares of orchards comprised of nearly 18000 trees, Willowdale Truffles are now the largest single source producer of Black WinterTruffles on the African Continent
Our Orchards
We strive to manage our orchards as environmentally consciously as possible, favouring mechanical orchard management techniques. Our orchards are nourished by natural summer thunderstorms and our irrigation water sourced from natural mountain springs and streams.
Once harvested, our truffles are simply washed gently under clean running water before being packed and shipped express cold-chain directly to our customers, ensuring that they are as natural, fresh and aromatic as possible when they arrive at destination.
Our stringent harvesting and grading criteria ensure that only those truffles of exceptional aroma and quality are offered to the our customers
Our Harvests
Our harvest season begins in earnest after the Winter Solstice in mid-June, and extends until the end of August. Once located by our specially trained truffle dogs, our truffles are first checked in field for optimal aroma and ripeness, before being individually harvested by hand, gently washed under fresh running water, graded, packed and shipped.
We harvest weekly to order so as to prevent unnecessary out of ground storage, and ship via expedited cold-chain to ensure that our truffles arrive at destination as fresh and aromatic as possible.