Woodford Truffles SA is made up of a dedicated management team that is the driving force behind the joint venture truffle project in South Africa.
Volker Miros, known as the ‘truffle guru’ of South Africa, is the manager and face of Woodford Truffles SA. Miros developed an interest in mushrooms at a very early age when mushroom hunting with his grandfather in the forests of Stuttgart, Germany. Later in life, Volker’s love of food steered him to become a prominent food photographer.
While researching the Khoi-Khoi culinary tradition of searching for and collecting the white Kalahari truffle for his book Koekumakranka, Miros became curious about the black Perigord truffle. He then began to research how to grow and inoculate black truffles in South Africa. With the patience, determination and optimism of any good farmer, he started a truffle farming venture in the country.
Woodford Truffles SA is a joint enterprise between Woodford and the Miros Trust, and aims to establish a truffle producing agricultural industry in South Africa. Second in command is Miros’ son Paul who is in charge of advertising and marketing; Riaan van Zyl is the in-house forrester and advises farmers on pruning and tree health to maintain the condition of the truffle trees. Other portfolios are divided into finance, accounting and agriculturalists.
Specialist consultants include various mycologists and a nursery team, as well as a dog training team who train a special breed of dogs to sniff out truffles.
Cultivating truffles depends on the technology available to inoculate host trees with spores of the truffle fungus, which occurs under tight...