Fancy a tour and a spot of tea with a truffle farmer?

This spring and summer head to the Granite Belt’s exciting new tour opportunity, with a behind the scenes look and opportunity to meet the farmer at Queensland’s first commercial truffiere.

The Folly in Ballandean opened their doors to the public in 2021, offering farm tours to see how they produce French Perigord Truffles for Granite Belt and Queensland restaurants.

2021 Saw the Egerton family’s first 450 trees producing their first truffle harvest and their further 1800 trees are growing by the month and expected to produce their first harvest by 2024.

The public are invited to pre-book ‘Tea with the Truffle Farmer’ Tours on Saturdays and Sundays, where farmer Maple takes guests on a tour of the truffière to walk amongst the trees and see where the truffles are grown. There’s plenty of opportunity to ask questions on these educational, informative and very scenic tours.

After seeing the trees and where the truffles are grown, the tours conclude at the truffle chalet where guests enjoy a tea or coffee, browse the truffle literature and have opportunity to purchase local products, including truffles (subject to availability) straight from the farmer.

How do truffles go in the Queensland climate?

The Granite Belt’s crisp winter nights, morning frosts, and hot dry summers have proven to be the perfect conditions for growing Queensland’s first black truffles. The Folly truffles trees are nurtured throughout the year and in the winter, dogs sniff for truffles, and when they are just ripe, they are gently extracted from below the earth.