Truffle Season, my first..

Even though I love mushrooms and find fungi fascinating, I never knew much about truffles. Its sort of a guarded art, the business of truffle hunting, and eating, for that matter. It seems like some weird French delicacy like snails or goose liver that I would probably never get a chance to actually try. And, because they grow underground, they seemed very unlikely to stumble upon. I have found truffles laying on the forest floor, or on a log or branch, clearly unearthed by someone or something, likely an animal like a squirrel, but with some investigation I was never convinced they were of any culinary value. The ones I have found were known as “deer truffles,” and despite having a very ornate and bumpy outer rind, the insides are usually comprised of a black powdery substance. These are in the genus Elaphomyces, and are known as deer truffles, of no culinary value to humans. Also, while at the Washington coast on a foray with the famous Alan Rockefeller, I got to see and study Rhizopogon, a different truffle like fungi thats actually related to Suillus mushrooms, a bolete of sorts. There are a couple other types of these “false truffles,” and as was pointed out to me by truffle guru and mycologist Dr. Charles LeFevre, they are all basidiomycetes, more closely related to gilled and bolete type mushrooms. “Basido’s” as they’re often called produce spores on a fertile cell known as a basidia, usually growing 4 spores per cell, but the good truffles, the culinary truffles, whether it be in Italy or Oregon, are ascomycetes, more closely related to morels and Helvella, and other mushrooms with the leathery and bizarre shaped fruiting bodies.

This year, 2024, I got to experience local, culinary ascomycete truffles for the first time. We are training a dog, a 1 year old GSP named Loki, and we were invited by Truffle Dog Company to the Joriad Truffle Dog Contest in Eugene Oregon in February, giving the mycophile in me somehting to appease my obsession in the middle of winter. We loaded the truck and went to Oregon on a Saturday morning to the festival. Thats where I met Dr. LeFevre, a PhD in Biology and a truffle farmer, probably the most sucessful truffle farmer in North America, and I got to join him while the tupperwares of truffles came in from the field, at the awards part of the ceremony, at the very beautiful Willamette Valley Winery later that night. The smell of the tubs of truffles almost knocked me off of my feet. To me, smelling them, freshly dug and in large quantity, they wreaked of solevent or diesel, maybe mixed with a funky kinda garlicky smell. I was aghast as to what all the hype was about. They had a bunch of foods, smothered in Oregon White Truffle, Tuber oregonense, like flatbread, French onion soup, crostinis, and pastries, all with elegant flakes of freshly shaved truffles. Eating the food felt strange to me, like some weird experiment, a challenge of sorts, to tolerate the flavor and maybe even actually like it. It truly is a unique smell, not that everyone will like. In fact, I would bet, that most people would say they dont care for them once they tried them. But by the end of the night, after all the chatter, the twinkling surroundings of the Vineyard Chateau, something else was at play that was making the fungi more appealing. The thrill of each bite, to get to consider and explain what I was tasting. They grew on me, the strange scent that seemed to permeate from my throat, even 10 minutes after eating them, was exciting. Charles remarked that they add ‘electricity’ to food, which I thought was a good description. That night I left with a Styrofoam to-go box with probably the most expensive doggie bag I had ever tossed in the back seat of my Tahoe. Later that night in the hotel I found myself eating just the truffles off of the flatbread and crostini’s, just to see again what it was like. You can’t help but to smile after taking a bite of truffle, and look around for the reaction of others that might be feeling the same as you are.

After that I was hooked and the following weekend had the pleasure of going out with a generous and nice fellow named Will, from Vashon Island. He showed us his spot, and Loki founf his first few wild truffles. Will’s dog, Penny, found 28 White truffles in about 2 hours, which he sent home with us. I have made truffle eggs, risotto, a ton of butter infused with the scent, as well as grapeseed oil. I truffled potato chips and avocado, it infuses well with anything containing fat, so cheese or cream works well. Everyone else in the family doesnt like them, the kids actually run from the smell, but they also like to put ketchup on scrambled eggs, so there is that..

I am still very interested in habitat and trying to find some growing here on the Kitsap Peninsula, although no luck yet. Ill keep this posted, or not, IDK. Ive never written a blog, but I do like to write, so who knows, maybe this will become my new thing. Mush Love.