Digging in the Dirt... in Piedmont

Truffle hunting has been on my mental “must do while living in Europe” list for quite a few years… which is why I was ecstatic when I finally found a set of friends who wanted to give it a go?

What’s not to love about the concept of following a pig or a dog around in the woods all day and digging in dirt.

We found a lovely house for the 7 of us atop a small hill in a very small town in Piedmont where we stayed for 4 glorious nights in October, prime-time truffle season.

We met our truffle hunter and translator at 7am in Alba, where we then followed him by car to his top secret truffle hunting grounds.  Shhhhh

                                       

A few in our group had researched truffle hunting prior to our trip and were slightly worried by some people who’d said that it was obvious that the hunter simply “planted” a few truffles for his dog to find, but that it was more of a “theory” based hunt versus an actual, found-for-the-first-time-fresh truffle hunt.   So we were a little deflated upon hearing our guide, after a few steps out of the car, say that it was a little late in the day for truffle hunting and that you typically will have more success very early (4 or 5am) in the morning.  He therefore warned that we may not find any truffles on our hunt and he had planted 2 truffles to make a simulation just in case we didn’t come across any during our time together.  Hmmm

So seven eager, slightly anxious wellington-clad people followed the translator, the truffle hunter, and his trusted canine, Lila (renamed Truffie by our group) into a hazelnut grove.

Truffie was off running between the trees... every once in a while, the truffle hunter whistling or chanting to her in Italian (Perhaps, "Psstt - I planted it just over there!!").

Soon after we arrived in the grove, she was digging in one spot.  Before most of us could run over to where she was, the truffle hunter was pushing her away and enticing her with a treat so that he could then show us the next step – digging up the truffle.

 I hadn’t counted on how delicate the digging process is – but if you dig too close to the actual truffle, you could easily damage it.  So you dig around it, slowly and patiently, with a small tool until the soil around it is loosened enough to pull the truffle out.  The truffle hunter taught us how to dig up the first one and we were all quite merry to have seen the whole process.  

                                       

One of the crew had brought a flask filled with sloe gin, and poured some for our new-found hero, the truffle hunter, and the man who helped us to understand him, his translator.

Amazing how sloe gin can inspire a far more prolific truffle hunt!  Within minutes, we were following the three of them to another hazelnut grove – most likely his REAL hunting turf.  There we found endless truffles.  Each one of us had the pleasure to dig up one of our own!  An incredible experience – quite fun to be so hands-on and learn so much about one of my favourite indulgences.

Smells like truffle!

 How can something that looks like this taste so delicious??

Once we all had had a turn in digging up a truffle that Truffie had found for us (just by simply sniffing around the grove), we said our grazies and arrivedercis... but not before purchasing a handful of our day’s work (well, two hours' work to be fair) in the grove.  We later found a lovely shop in Alba with homemade pastas and enjoyed the feasts of our labour later that night, accompanied by a spot or three of Barbera d'Alba.  Mmmmm