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ABC News
02-08-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Truffle growers concerned manufactured flavouring misleading as demand for raw product grows
The wet, wintry days are in full swing in southern Australia and truffle hunting season is well underway. Australia is now the fourth-largest truffle producer in the world, exporting more than 11 tonnes valued at $9 million in 2023. The demand for the expensive but flavoursome fungus continues to rise but growers and wholesalers are concerned consumers do not know what truffles really taste like. In the Strathbogie ranges in north-east Victoria, basenji dogs Audrey and Winnie are busy sniffing the ground in search of truffle in exchange for a treat. David and Kate McConnell started growing truffles in 2007 after planting an orchard of oak trees. The couple said the rise of synthetic truffle flavour is worrying, considering how much work goes into producing the fungus. "It's something that's a concern from a marketing perspective, definitely," Mr McConnell said. "The idea is to promote more enjoyment in actually experiencing a real truffle, which is what we try to do." Simon Friend grades and sells truffles out of Melbourne and said alarm bells go off in his mind when people describe the flavour as "strong". "As soon as I hear that my initial thought is that they haven't had any real truffle experience," Mr Friend said. He is worried people who have tasted synthetic truffle flavour do not know that it is different to a fresh truffle. "It's a misnomer," Mr Friend said. "There's no real truffle in truffle oil. People don't know that they are actually experiencing a synthetic flavour. Truffle oils are typically made by infusing a flavour often referred to on the bottle as an "aroma" or "essence". There are no laws in Australia around the use of synthetic flavours in products, but Mr Friend is worried that consumers are being misled. "It's the same with vanilla in a huge way. Caviar, and maple syrup too," he said. "Consumers need to understand there's a tremendous amount of work going to getting a beautiful truffle on a table, or in their butter." David McConnell admits truffle growing can feel like a bit of a gamble each year. "The interesting thing about truffles is the dog indicates where they are and until we uncover it we don't know if it's ripe or not," Mr McConnell said. "You buy the trees inoculated with truffle spores and then you cross your fingers and hope that in four to six years that you'll be successful. Because truffles are grown underground, growers must train dogs to sniff out the ripe ones before they can dig them up. Mr McConnell said the fungi did not ripen with time once they were picked so the dogs needed to get the smell correct straight away. The Strathbogie ranges are ideal for growing truffles with high rain, hot summers and very cold winters. However, seasonal conditions this year have been very dry and the truffles have been a bit smaller than usual. "There is nothing like rain from the sky. It's been a challenge to keep the soil moist this year," Mr McConnell said. "But the demand is growing. We've had our truffles sent all over the world."
BBC News
16-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Devon council changes design plans for historic Bideford wharf
A Devon council has amended plans for the regeneration of a derelict riverside site in District Council's planning committee agreed the apartment balconies in the plans for Brunswick Wharf should be recessed and the design match a Red Earth said it planned to start work on building 101 homes, retail units, restaurant, quayside walkway, public square and car park on the East-the-Water site in developer said the project would cost more than £30m and take three years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Director of Red Earth Simon Friend said the changes gave the project more of a "wharf-style aesthetic" which was encouraged by the council's conservation officer and Historic England said it had no objection but remained concerned about the scale of the three main accommodation organisation also had concern about the impact on the Grade I listed Long Bridge and Royal Hotel, and a number of Grade II structures on both sides of the river. The changes will mean pedestrians losing 3ft (0.9m) of river walkway in certain points but Mr Friend said that access for machinery would Chris Leather said the recessed balconies were better than the previous "porcupine" effect and he did not think a slight reduction in the walkway was Friend said it was a "massively important regeneration project for Bideford" which had "huge local support".He said the development would pay tribute to the site's history through the preservation of the I Baker & Son plaque and a storytelling approach throughout the scheme. This would be achieved in collaboration with local organisations such as the Way of the Wharves and Bideford Bridge Trust, he added.
The Herald Scotland
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Best-selling book One Day to become new Scottish musical
David Nicholls' best-selling novel, which begins and ends in the Scottish capital, will be brought to the stage of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh next year under plans for its latest in a series of high-profile musical adaptations. Read more: Leading Scottish playwright David Greig, the Lyceum's former artistic director, is adapting Nicholls' book, which has sold six million copies and been translated into 40 different languages to date. The novel explores the twist and turns of the friendship and eventual relationship between the two main characters, Dexter and Emma, over the course of 20 years. The story unfolds after the pair meet for the first time at their Edinburgh University graduation party and revisits their lives each year on the same July day. The Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh will launch a stage musical version of One Day in February. (Image: Will Maidwell) One Day is the first major production to be confirmed by the Lyceum since it appointed a new artistic director, James Brining, who took up his post last month. Greig was approached just over a year ago about a One Day musical by producer Simon Friend, who had spent more than a decade trying to bring an adaptation to the stage. Greig is working with American singer-songwriters Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano - the husband-and-wife duo who record under the name Johnnyswim - on One Day, which will initially run at the Lyceum between February and April next year. Author David Nicholls is best known for his book One Day. Picture: Supplied The show will reunite Greig with Olivier and Tony-nominated theatre director Max Webster, who recently worked on stage adaptations of Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest, starred David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa respectively, as well as the award-winning adaptation of Yann Martel's novel The Life of Pi, which was produced by Simon Friend. Greig and Webster previously worked together on a musical adaptation of the children's book The Lorax and also collaborated on a new version of the Shakespearean play The Winter's Tale, which the Lyceum produced in Greig's first season at the helm. The One Day musical is being billed as 'a celebration of love, fate, and the moments that define us forever, with a soaring original score, and the warmth, wit, and raw emotion of the novel that touched millions.' Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall starred in the Netflix series based on the book One Day. Picture: Ludovic Robert/Netflix Among the highlights of Greig's time as artistic director at the Lyceum was an adaptation of writer-director Bill Forsyth's classic Scottish film comedy Local Hero. Greig's previously adapted Alasdair Gray's novel Lanark, the Greek tragedy The Bacchae and Roald Dahl's classic children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the stage. Greig said: 'I was initially approached around this time last year by Simon, who had the rights to do a One Day stage adaptation. He had previously worked with Max and also knew James (Brining) very well from his time at the Leeds Playhouse. 'I felt that One Day was a very Edinburgh story. They needed somewhere to develop the adaptation. We had already done Local Hero and were doing Wild Rose. I felt that One Day would really work in Edinburgh and it would be a lovely musical for the Lyceum to do next. I felt it could be a real win for everybody. 'It has all worked out very well, we're all really thrilled that it's going to be happening at the Lyceum and we really hope we can pull it off.' Greig's final show at the helm of the Lyceum was a musical adaptation of the hit Scottish feature film Wild Rose, about a troubled country singer dreaming of a new life in Nashville. Nicole Taylor, who wrote both the screenplay and stage adaptation of Wild Rose, was also the lead writer of the One Day series. Greig said: 'The One Day series was a phenomenon when it came out, but I didn't watch it. It hadn't long been out when I got the musical gig, so I wanted to be careful that I didn't copy anything. I'm convinced I will adore the series because I adore Nicole's writing, but I felt I needed to keep a bit of distance to keep my mind clear. 'The strange coincidence over the last year was at the same time Nicole was coming to me for advice about how to write a stage musical and I have been going to her for advice about how to write a stage version of One Day.' Greig can trace his One Day roots back to when he and Nicholls studied drama together at Bristol University in the 1980s and both in a student production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988. The production of the 17th century tragedy Sejanus His Fall, was directed by Matthew Warchus, who would go on to replace Kevin Spacey as artistic director of The Old Vic theatre in London. Nicholls' time in Edinburgh that summer is said to have inspired the author to write the book, which opens in 1988. He said: 'We performed in the Fringe play in the room on the top floor of a venue on Chambers Street. There were eight of us on stage dressed in our underwear. I've no idea why, but I guess it sold tickets. I think that is when David fell in love with Edinburgh. 'It has felt strangely fated that I would not only get the chance to work on a story with which I've felt a kind of closeness, but also be able to celebrate the Edinburgh-ness of the story and open it at the Lyceum. 'A musical is a chance to reinvent and think about something in a different way. You have to sort of find a logic for its existence. There was something for me about One Day being rooted in the Edinburgh moment when Emma and Dexter meet, but also its ending, on Arthur's Seat.' Greig said he had jumped at the chance to adapt a book which he had 'adored' when he read it, but admitted its episodic structure made it 'tricky' to bring to the stage. He said: 'One of the absolute joys of the book is how it approaches time passing, how it affects us and shapes us, and how were sort of the same people but also totally different as we age. 'David hit on an absolute truth, which is that time is a character in our lives. When I read One Day I totally knew who Dexter and Emma were and what they were experiencing. There is something really lovely about being able to explore that in real-time on stage. 'David writes about romance and love as we experience it in our real lives. It is deeper, stranger and harder.' Greig said both Sudano and Ramirez, who began writing songs together after meeting in Nashville more than 20 years ago, have been 'obsessed' with One Day since they both read the book. He said: 'Abner and Amanda have been one of the huge energies behind the musical happening. They feel the story is very close to them. Their songs are bringing honestly, vulnerability, beauty and heart to the show, which is allowing me as the writer to let the dialogue be as a dry and ironic as it is in the original book. 'Hopefully the show will have everything people want from it. It won't be sloppily sentimental because the book isn't sloppily sentimental, but it will have real emotion.'
