Would you like to grow truffles without getting your hands dirty?

We have successfully demonstrated the first commercial scale truffle production in the United States and are looking for investment partners to substantially expand our truffle acreage.  We are currently writing a complete prospectus describing the nature of the expansion.  If you would like to know more about becoming a part of the new American Perigord truffle industry at its inception, please leave contact information at tom@tennesseetruffle.com  and we will send you a prospectus as soon as it is available.

Tennessee Truffle founder Dr. Tom Michaels has been involved with the science and art of growing mushrooms and truffles literally his whole life.  Growing up on the family mushroom farm in the 1950s in Naperville, Illinois, he fondly remembers his mom’s homemade mushroom soup, made with fresh portabello mushrooms.  That was when portabellos were sold as off grades, long before the mushroom industry was aware of the treasure they had in them!  After college (University of California, Berkeley) and a stint as an organic chemist with Shell Development Co., Tom received his M.S. degree (University of Nevada, Reno) researching – what else! – fungi.  His Ph.D. dissertation (Oregon State University) on the cultivation of Perigord truffles pioneered techniques to lay the groundwork for growing them in North America. However, to raise a family, he put aside his speculative dreams of growing truffles and worked “real jobs” in mushroom research and development with Dole Foods and Monterey Mushrooms, Inc.  In 1999 he returned to truffle cultivation in earnest in the foothills of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in eastern Tennessee.  Perfect climate, hospitable soil, science, intuition and years of caring all came together, and in 2007 Tom produced the first commercial quantities of Perigord truffles grown in America, truffles which have received glowing praise from some of the countries top chefs (see accolades page).