Truffles mmmmmmm

[Mr Wozencroft]

Just a random thought. Is it possible to hunt for wild truffles in the uk?

[origamicrane]

Just a random thought. Is it possible to hunt for wild truffles in the uk?

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dunno about truffles

but if you interested maybe this site might help?

http://www.fungitobewith.org/

if no truffles, I wouldn't say no to a few morels and chanterelles?

[nimzo]

Certainly is in berkshire and Bucks though you will have to wait for the winter.

[Mr Wozencroft]

Thanks for the help. I'm thinking of buying a pot bellied pig and was wondering if I could use to find truffles in Wales. A long shot I know but a great way to justify the pig to my better half.

[offcentre]

there's a fair bit on tinternet about this. It seems, not far from me, Patching in Sussex was a bit of a hotbed of truffling activity in the 19th century.

I strongly believe that there are truffles aplenty to be found in this country - did you see the River Cottage episode where Hugh trained a pig and found a truffle on the first outing. I'd like to think it wasn't planted there by the production crew mind.

If I could I'd get myself a pig and go a hunting. Unfortunately I live in a flat in Hove so not sure the people downstairs would approve

[Adam Balic]

Black summer truffles (Tuber aestivum) are found in the UK, but unless you have a tried pig or dog, finding them may be a problem. You could contact a mushroom gathering society, but I imagine that they may not pass out the information freely.

English truffles

N.B. as the truffles are native to England, not sure I agree with the 'spores from France' theory. Who knows though.

[charliehicks]

Just a random thought. Is it possible to hunt for wild truffles in the uk?

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Another thought, does anyone remember a UK based truffle hunting competition held by the Observer. It was maybe twenty years ago and, as far as I can remember, surprisingly successful.

How about growing your own? Truffle impregnated trees from Seeds of Italy or Future Foods. Both catalogues are well worth a browse.

Edited June 3, 2005 by charliehicks (log)

[marlena spieler]

there are truffles all over the world, growing in such places as Britain, China, Africa, Spain, but the only trouble is that they just aren't delicious, or AS delicious (though i'm not sure about spain, i have heard good things about theirs) as the truffles in perigord, provence, northern italy, tuscany, umbria, even campania (irpino). too, croatia (istria) has truffles and some of them aren't bad at all.......

in my experiences truffle hunting in france, planting a spore-impregnated tree doesn't seem to make much of a difference, except psychologically. whoever could come up with a method of planting a source of truffles would become a rich person....but so far, not much luck.

there is an excellent eco-musee in Sorges, France, which can teach you much about the life cycle of the truffle.

dogs are excellent for h unting truffles, they need to be trained. pigs come to it naturally but you have to whip that truffle away from the pig before they devour it, and that is hard with a big pig. thats why its usually small, say, 3 month old pigs that are used for truffle hunting.

but i've even met people who don't use either dog or pig, but rely on their own methods. what are these? (i'm not telling....but well, we all have our own method). very exciting to sniff the soil when you've unearthed such a treasure from the dirt, its magic, pure magic.

marlena

[alexhills]

There was a TV show earlier in the year - Dragon's Den - where various largely clueless wannabe entreprenuers pitched ideas to rich and rather snarky investors. One of the few that did get any money was someone who had apparently found a foolproof way to cultivate truffles in the lab for his Phd. He was asking for money to buy land in Perigord to use these seeded or whatever it was trees in. he said something about the kind of bedrock there being the best... Apparently it will take a good 7-8 years before they get any yield. I've eaten cultivated US truffles from Oregon, good but not like the best French ones.

[marlena spieler]

oregon, california, they're just not even close to the perigord, provencal, or italian truffles. and there have been sooooo many enterpreneurs and phds working on this....but you never know.

wouldn't it be wonderful, if someone found a way to grow truffles easily, foolproofily, then the price would come down and we could all wallow, wallow, wallow, oh deep delicious sigh!

x marlena