Canberra: the country

One of the main reasons that I was so set on making the trip to Canberra was because last winter I'd read about the truffle hunts that are held on local farms. I found out about it too late last year, so I marked it on the calendar and as soon as spots were open, I signed us up for one!

There are several farms near Canberra that offer public truffle hunts, and I chose Turalla Truffles because the dogs looked the cutest at that farm. The trufferies in Australia use dogs instead of pigs for truffle hunting; our farmer guide, Damian, told us that's because pigs will eat all the truffles and dogs won't!

Damian, our truffle hunting farmer

The farm was about 40 minutes outside Canberra. It was a really beautiful drive out to the farm country, and we followed very country directions. (Like looking for a green cattle grate and other such landmarks.) It brought back happy memories of being home!

The trufferie is located on Damian's family farm. His wife and teenage daughter helped out with the day, wrangling dogs and sharing information about their farm life. The hunt itself was pretty casual: the group met at the dirt road entrance to the farm, and Damian asked all the people that didn't have "city cars" to help ferry the rest of us back across the field to the trufferie. We rode with Damian's wife and the two truffle dogs, Eight and Three Spot. We were friends immediately! 

Damian and the family use the family Jack Russell Terriers as their truffle dogs rather than getting professionally trained dogs. Damian has trained them to indicate the smell of truffles with a paw on the ground when he asks "Where's the truffle?" He said it was pretty easy to train them, but it did seem that Eight did pretty much what she wanted with no regard for him! Three Spot was a really good dog, though, and he helped find lots of truffles during the day! 

The truffle hunt itself was just under 2 hours long. We dipped the soles of our shoes in a solution before we went in the trufferie to prevent bringing in any fungi. Then we basically followed Damian and Three Spot from tree to tree as they worked on finding some truffles. 

It was a lot of work for Damian. At each tree where Three Spot indicated, Damian would dig with his hands and smell the dirt constantly. He could tell by the aroma in the dirt if he was digging closer or farther away from a truffle. Since we were early in the season, a lot of the truffles he located were too early to be harvested. But he and Three Spot did find some good ones! Here is Toby holding the bulk of the harvest (one in hand and a few in the bag): about $1000 in truffles!

Even though there was a lot of standing around while Damian dug in the dirt, it was a fascinating couple of hours. Damian was really interesting, shared tons of information about truffles, and had a great sense of humor!

 

At the end of the hunt, Damian had harvested enough truffles to fill an order for a chef in Canberra, sell some at the markets the next weekend, and sell some to the group! A pretty good day for Damian!

We closed out the hunt with some truffle tastings. Damian's wife set up a table in the field and we had brie with truffles, bread with truffle butter, truffle-infused olive oil, and truffle-infused vodka. I skipped on the vodka because it sounded pretty revolting to me, but Toby said it was OK. 

Our outdoor tasting was a perfect end to our day on the farm. We were happily reminded of home in many ways, and in many others, it was a unique, fascinating experience. And I'm pretty sure for the rest of our lives when we eat truffles, Damian, Three Spot, and our beautiful day at the trufferie will be in our minds!

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