The Truffle Book - the first book in English to cover the world of truffles and the truffles of the world - is now available from good bookshops in New Zealand and by mail order from this site. With a foreword by truffle guru Antonio Carluccio, the book looks at the classic truffles of French and Italian cuisine, explores the new truffles of the USA, and examines the burgeoning truffle industries of Australia and New Zealand. There’s detailed advice on buying and using truffles, recipes for the defining dishes, plus chapters on training truffle dogs and establishing a truffière. 152 fact-packed pages, fully illustrated with over 90 colour pictures, maps and illustrations, available in paperback, limited edition hardback and downloadable PDF. A sample PDF is available now, free of charge!

Limestone Hills is a small farm in the Waipara wine district on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. Here Gareth and Camille Renowden are growing (or attempting to grow) truffles, olives and grapes. Gareth is an author, journalist, photographer and publisher, and Camille is a banking consultant. They started work on Limestone Hills in 1997, and still haven't finished. On this site you can learn about the farm, truffles in New Zealand, arrange a stay in the farm cottage, buy Gareth's books and read his "truffle blog" On The Farm.

The Shearer’s Cottage at Limestone Hills is a beautiful two bedroom cottage with a wonderful view over our vineyard and truffière down into the Waipara gorge. It’s a perfect base for visitors who want to explore the vineyards, olive groves and countryside of the Waipara Valley. Just 45 minutes drive north of Christchurch, about 2 hours to the whale watching at Kaikoura, or an hour to the Alpine thermal resort of Hanmer Springs. Guests are free to explore the farm and its large garden, wander up the Waipara River to the limestone gorge or fish for trout, and in winter may get the chance to join Gareth and NZ champion truffle hound Peg in a truffle hunt.

We harvested our first black truffle in mid-June 2006. It weighed 18g and tasted very nice indeed. Although no more have so far been found, we expect production to increase significantly over the next few seasons. More details here in Gareth Renowden's On The Farm blog, which is regularly updated with truffle news from New Zealand, Australia and around the world. On The Farm also covers truffle cuisine, events at Limestone Hills, and lots of other material.