While visiting Italy, we had an incredible truffle hunting experience in Alba, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. We found a local truffle hunter, Giovanni and his dog Pearla, who took us into the woods in search of truffles. Although it’s not the season for the most prestigious white truffles, black truffles are in season, which coincides perfectly with our visit.
Giovanni is a fourth-generation truffle hunter with the craft being passed from father to son. He grows Muscat grapes, but supplements his income from truffles.
Pearla, his gorgeous dog, also comes from a long lineage of truffle-hunting dogs with good genealogy and is bred from Giovanni’s father’s dog. Giovanni started working with her when she was just 30-days old, introducing her to the smell of truffles and simulating hunting experiences. He said Perala is the envy of many hunters as she is an exceptional hunter.
Pearla is desperate to get going, straining on her lead, so we start walking into the woods. The white poplar trees are flowering, shedding fairy-like cotton snowflakes, creating an ethereal feeling as they float to the floor of the valley, like white carpet.
The shaded woods are compact with white poplar, willow, oak, and linden trees. However, it was difficult to know which root the truffle grows from as the root systems are spread as wide as the trees are tall, with roots intertwined across the forest floor. The truffle grows on the finest tip of a root, taking about two months to mature, with its size dependent on the water supply, humidity and soil. When the truffle is mature, it emits the distinctive musty, fungi aroma, and if not hunted, will regenerate back into the soil with the help of worms and snails.
Walking through the woods, we follow Giovanni, who has a watchful eye on Pearla. With the scent of a wild boar, she is off.
Her nose barely a millimetre off the ground, she recognises the fragrance and digs into the side of the mossy bank. Giovanni runs to her side and takes over, using his fingers to gently work the soil and massage the bulbous fungi from its fine root to ensure there is no damage to the prized find. Giovanni then fastidiously covers the hole, spreading leaves and foliage to conceal the evidence from other hunters.
Black truffles are usually found about 10 cm deep in the soil, whereas white truffles can be anywhere up to 1.5 meters, requiring meticulous chipping away at the soil with a spatula-shaped tool. The fungi used to be measured by the kilogram, but today they are measured by the gram. In a good season, Giovanni finds 3-4 kilograms of white truffles and substantially more black truffles.
At 400-500 euros per 100 grams for white truffles (the price fluctuates daily depending on availability), it is clear why secrecy is important with many hunters out before dawn and after dusk.
Our haul of black truffles measured 90 grams, with a market value of 60 euros, but had they been white truffles, it would have been a different story.
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