Some of the good surface truffles

I’ve noticed that the focus of these blogs to date has been on the issues affecting the production of good truffles, bugs, damage etc. A summation of some of the good ones, and successful soil covered rescues seems in order.  So on today’s hunt I took the camera along, and since it has been raining already (a little extra water wont hurt), a squirt bottle to clean the tops of a few of the known ones for some photos.

  1. The first was found Jun12th showing as 20cent sized exposed flush with soil surface. It has a medium aroma and is developing the proper perfume.  I am distinguishing between the base truffle smell and the volatile perfume they emit at peak ripeness.
  2. & 3. Were found by surface bulges in April and covered with soil, they have been successfully protected since then. No perceptible smell from them as yet, but Bear was quite interested in them they will likely ripen early July.

4., 5. Showing a surface truffle that was covered with soil in April. The soil cover was too late to prevent the  crack from drying, but the truffle is sound, whole and currently nowhere near ripe.

6. We’ve all heard of truffle dogs, and pigs, but these truffles were found in early May due to a mouse that had dug a hole beside them.  Surprisingly there were no taste tests made by the mouse. There is an enticing aroma arising from the soil around these  three, however it is still lacking that special truffle note, and they are quite hard to the touch.  The smallest, deepest seems to be the closest to ripe, the others should be ready within the same week.  Estimate 3-7 days till ready.

You could play spot the truffle with this photo.

As well as the row of four that Bear is nearly using as a pillow, he found a 15mm one near the base of the tree, and three sticks marking other near surface truffles are behind him.

Bear also marked a few spots today on known producing trees, but there wasn’t sufficient odour to warrant digging.  They have been noted for checking next time. I was impressed last year that he was sniffing ripening truffles, and only marking with his paw on properly ripe ones.  Unfortunately it seems that may have been a new to the job/sensitivity issue, as today he was homing in on some of the surface truffles from 20 feet away, I could smell a faint trace on some of them, but not the others.  It is good to be confident he is not missing any, but I did like the paw mark being reserved for ripe ones.  I’ll see if I can encourage him along his existing tendency for degrees of sniff/interest versus the final “paw of approval”, but I will need to be careful to not confuse him.

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