Mushrooms, wild onions, and a handful of greens… Foragers know that “the season’s prized produce can become a free meal,” to quote the Washington Post Food section, celebrating the wild-edibles experts who take to the Virginia woods in search of prized (and free) fungi. Wild foraging in the Virginia Piedmont can lead to some tasty finds (though beginners should definitely tag along with an expert on their first expedition, so as not to pick up toxic plants).

But did you know that a Virginia farm just north of Culpeper (in Rixeyville) has also started cultivating truffles, the most prized of fungi delicacies, with the Virginia Truffle Growers company? In partnership with the leading Australasia truffle authority, Pat and John Martin sell the trees that produce the truffles: “We are in the business of inoculating oak seedlings with tuber melanosporum, and selling the seedlings to growers interested in establishing orchards/truffieres for Perigord truffles.” As recently featured in the Charlottesville Daily Progress and the Culpeper Times, the Martins’ operation seeks to bring to Virginia the agricultural item that is “worth more than its weight in gold to European kitchens that want the rich, earthy aroma and taste to enhance their very best dishes.”

Image of Pat Martin and Maggic Shumack on the farm in Rixeyville via the Daily Progress