POUNCING through the frosted morning dew of Piemonte, Ringo, our truffle-hunting dog, discovered the knock-your-socks-off, knobby potato shaped truffle we had been anticipating. Ringo darts off into the forest and pauses for a moment… looks at the ground, takes a deep breath, then claws vigorously at the ground. Tirone Angelo, a cheerful old truffle hunter shouts “Dai, Ringo, Dai, Piu Avanti!” and we witnessed the uprooting of a white truffle, or more commonly called GOLD to truffle hunters. These fungal gems on the global market bring upwards of $2000.00 per pound.
Nothing, that is, except for luscious wheat fields, crumpled clay hills and the ribboned vineyards of the Barbera grape, stood in the way of Ringo, Cicho, and Tom, our truffle hunting German short haired pointer dogs. They tactfully perused the dank woods of Moncalvo tirelessly. The sniffed out 4 white and two black truffles in a 2 hour time period. Unfortunately, they were below regulation, and also the rain drought hasn’t helped either. Without rain, the fields are less brittle making it more difficult for the dogs to pick up the scent.
Speaking of scent, you either love it or hate it. Some have assimilated the smell of truffles to primal musk, overripe cheese, or ozone while opponents claim it mimics the male pig sex hormone, and for that reason, female pigs have been used historically for the hunt; however, more recently it seems like most truffle hunters are transitioning to dogs. Tirone, our guide, has 5 dogs born and bred specifically for truffle hunting. They aren’t cheap either; an adult trained German Short-hair would run you around 5G’s. This is only a small investment if you consider a single truffle hunter bringing home around 5 kilos of white truffles a year… 10,000 bucks!
Afterwords, Tizzy and I were fortunate enough to enjoy the Fiera del Tartufo. In the Piemonte region, 1000’s of mushroom, cheese, and wine lovers alike follow the October Fiera across small villages throughout the region. This turned out to be fascinating… yet expensive. Bring your bancomat cause I easily spent 100 Euros on truffles, cheese, tartufo oils, honey, and roasted chestnuts. YUM!
Additional photos can be seen here
Love the writing style! Looks like Italy is turning you into a regular renaissance man!
Italy, land of truffles from North to South!