HOW
Trees, whose rootlets cultivate truffles include: pines, firs, Douglas fir, oaks, hazel nuts, hickories, birches, beeches, and eucalyptus.
No one knows why the rootlets under oak, beech, hazel and chestnut tree 3-12 inches below ground play host to their fungus but digging in at random can damage the underground network of mycelium, which has grown underground up to 10 meters across.
The ‘scorched earth’ look above ground means the grass has not grown and looks ‘burnt’ because of the mycelium have drawn out the nutrients from the earth like an imposing thief and the fungus it is.
Truffles do well in damp, not in dry, conditions but they can also rot in too much summer rain.
The truffle fly burrows into the ground and lays eggs and was thought to penetrate the roots of the oak producing a nut, which then became a truffle but the fly looks for the truffle to lay its eggs in. An experienced truffle hunter will watch to see where an egg-laden fly will settle then carefully dig into the ground to find a rich bed.
Others use dogs, or pigs usually a sow, trained from and early age, and fed on a few bad quality rotting tubers so she instinctively passes up the best quality and munches the cheaper ones.
Dogs are mostly used in Provence and don’t have a taste for eating truffles but foxes and badges have also been used.
‘Seed’ truffles for sale in France are a fraud, as cultivation of acorns near oaks already growing truffles does not work.
Trade fairs in Alba, Périgord Piedmont are more about the business and truffles themselves are rarely displayed but the pungent aroma let the noses know they are there.
----------