I’m to understand that truffles cannot be cultivated, and that they only grow when and where the conditions are right and that finding them is hit-and-miss.
OK, why? We know that they grow at the base of oak trees (or is it chestnut trees) in certain climates and soils. Can we not replicate those climates and soils in a lab, plant some oak trees, and await the results?
Also, I understand that you need a pig to find them, but unfortunately pigs like to eat them once they find them. Has no one thought to put a muzzle on a truffle-hunting pig?
Truffles can be and are cultivated, in that if you plant oak trees and seed the soil with truffle spores they do grow. This has being done in Tasmania to provide fresh truffles to the European market in particular when local ones are out of season over there.
Pigs are used because their sense of smell is keener and they are better diggers than dogs, but as noted they do like to eat the truffles - they are only hunting them for that purpose, not to please their owners as dogs do.
Naturally people have thought of muzzling them, but then they can’t dig properly and also they see no point in digging for them any more since they can’t eat them.
It’s essentially the way it’s done, though not in a laboratory but in the wilderness. In areas where truffles grow, they plant the proper trees (oaks, indeed) in the proper soil and then they go and collect the truffles. Contrarily to other mushrooms, truffles generally aren’t collected by people wandering around in areas that look like they could have the correct caracteristics.
They aren’t cultivated in the sense that they aren’t sowed and then harvested, but they’re collected in carefully prepared and maintained areas.
I assume the same thing could be done with other mushrooms that can’t be cultivated, but I suppose it wouldn’t be worth it, due to their much lower market value.