FAQs

Truffles are the fruiting bodies (spore-bearing mechanisms) of underground mushrooms. The actual fungus from which the truffles grow are formed by an underground network of mycelium in a symbiotic relationship with a host plant. This mutually beneficial arrangement occurs [...]

Unlike mushrooms above ground, truffles rely entirely on animals to eat them as a means of spore dispersal. That is how truffle fungi spread and reproduce. And how do they do that exactly? Well, by smelling good of course! [...]

Yes. There are many species of truffles, however, only a handful are of commercial culinary value and taste very good.

Truffles are found all over the world and are usually associated with certain families of trees such as Pine, Oak, Hazelnut and Willow; although almost any tree can form mycorrhizae with truffle forming fungi of some kind. Depending on [...]

As truffles are usually found underground, you have to have a way to gather them! This is where detection animals come into play because of their superior olfactory capabilities. Traditionally in Europe truffles were harvested by female pigs because [...]

Pigs naturally forage and rout (dig for food) in the ground with their snouts and are keen lovers of truffles themselves and will happily gobble them up if not trained to eat something else as a reward. Pigs were [...]

Raking for truffles is the act of raking the soil of a forest to expose truffles, and then collecting them. This method, used regularly for scientific collections, often yields unripe and immature specimens which may not be suitable for [...]

Why not, we say! Properly utilizing dogs (or pigs) for locating truffles is more gentle on the environment (and we think more fun!). Unripe truffles lack odor, and therefore don’t have much culinary value. Using dogs allows us to [...]

We like to say that almost any dog, and any breed, with the right training, can be trained to find truffles. It is more about individual personality and how you work together as a team. You don’t have to [...]