27 Mar 2019

A nose for luxury

by trufflehuntress | posted in: Tesoro Mio Truffiere, Truffle Dogs, Truffle Farming in the US, Truffle Hunting, Truffle Huntress, Uncategorized | 0

San Francisco Chronicle : By Tara Duggan March 27, 2019

As California’s truffle industry grows, so does the need for trained hunters.

In Placerville, Alana McGee trains dogs bred for centuries to sniff out the luxury ingredient.

“Truffle,” William Shadbolt said firmly to Zane, his 5-month-old dog, holding a small perforated tin with a slice of the luxury mushroom inside. As soon as the distracted puppy finally came over to sniff it, Shadbolt gave him a treat.

“Good!” said trainer Alana McGee of Truffle Dog Co., praising both man and dog. When Shadbolt repeated the command, the white dog with chocolate-brown spots sat down in compliance and quickly sniffed the tin, having picked up that a payoff would follow.

Twelve curly-haired Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, along with their humans, had gathered on a truffle farm in Placerville (El Dorado County) for a day-long workshop in the ancient art of truffle hunting.

All the dogs at the day’s workshop were Lagotto Romagnolo (lah-GOAT-TOH ro-man-YO-lo), an Italian breed, and all were related. Placerville-area breeder Lisa Sobon specializes in the breed, which may have been the world’s original water retriever, predating the poodle, the Labrador and, of course, the labradoodle.

According to the Lagotto Romagnolo Club of America’s website, the breed may have originated as far back as the fifth or sixth century B.C. along Italy’s northern Adriatic coast, in the region of Romagna (“Lagotto Romagnolo” means lake dog of Romagna). A 15th century Andrea Mantegna painting titled “The Meeting” shows a kinky-haired Lagotto lookalike peeking out between the limbs of several towering figures. Originally, they were bred to hunt waterfowl, until, apparently, they had hunted them into exinction. Then they turned to truffles.

In Southern Europe, where several types of truffles grow wild and are farmed extensively, Lagotto Romagnolo and other dogs are trained to find their scent so that farmers can dig them up and sell the pricey tubers. Italian dog breeders have been known to rub truffle oil on the mother’s teats to give puppies a good early association with the tuber.

Read Full Article At San Francisco Chronicle:https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Northern-California-is-suddenly-awash-in-locally-13592399.php?fbclid=IwAR3PNFyS8wzyS2RM72nd6JiToqHaAR_K5-XnprvPEBfq4vNh3YTPysfdz3Y#photo-16880918

23 Mar 2019

The hunt for black gold

by trufflehuntress | posted in: Truffle Farming in the US, Truffle Hunting, Uncategorized | 0

The Guardian : Sat 23 Mar 2019

Staci O’Toole smells the soil at a Jackson Family Wines property, Santa Rosa, California. Photograph: Talia Herman/The Guardian

The hunt for black gold: is California the world’s next truffle hotspot?

For decades, enthusiasts have hoped truffles can follow wine’s path to success in the state. Charlotte Simmonds joins a search for the delicacy

Staci O’Toole is lying face down in the dirt. “I can smell it!” she cries, nose to the roots of a hazelnut tree.

A funky, fungal odor emanates from a shallow hole in the ground of this Sonoma Valley orchard. It hints at a hidden treasure many years in the making: a French Périgord truffle, grown right here in California.

Commonly known as black truffles or even black diamonds, Périgords are one of the world’s most sought-after delicacies, selling for $800 or more per pound. Revered for lending an intoxicating flavor to everything from tagliatelle to sushi, they remain widely adored and shrouded in mystery.

With wild truffles increasingly scarce, scenes of affable farmers trawling the woods with a pot-bellied pig are becoming a rare sight. Most black truffles these days come from farms, where they are hunted by specially trained dogs. Cultivation secrets in this lucrative industry have traditionally been closely guarded, with the market dominated by France, Italy and Spain. But in recent years New World upstarts have been gaining ground: Australia is expected to produce 15 metric ton s this year, while New Zealand, South Africa and Chile all have burgeoning industries.

For decades many have pinned their hopes on the Mediterranean climate, robust wine industry and thriving food scene of California as the world’s next truffle hotspot. Now, it appears, such hopes are paying off.

O’Toole and her truffle-hunting dogs in Santa Rosa. Photograph: Talia Herman/The Guardian

The birth of an industry’

On this bright winter day, O’Toole, AKA the Truffle Huntress, has brought her pedigree truffle dogs to survey a property in the heart of northern California’s wine country. Mila, the more experienced of the lagotto Romagnolo dogs, is leading the charge. Panettone, still in training, bounds close behind.

The pair survey the orchard with enthusiasm and ruthless efficiency: several quick sniffs at the base of a tree are enough to determine whether a truffle lurks beneath. They comb several rows of trees without luck before Mila pounces and paws at the ground: the sign to start digging.

Wearing knee-high wellies and oversized sunglasses, O’Toole uses a delicate truffle trowel, a tool that looks more like a blunt dagger than a shovel, to turn the soil, occasionally lowering herself to the ground to sniff at her progress. “I can tell if I’ve got something here because it will make my mouth start watering,” she explains, brimming with optimism.

Truffles can take up to 10 years to produce, and growing them is like farming in the dark: fiddling at the surface in the hopes something magic is taking root below.

O’Toole came to truffle hunting after a career as a health insurance executive living in Silicon Valley. She wasn’t ready to retire but wasn’t sure what to do next.

Turned out her dog held the key. The lagotto Romagnolo is a traditional Italian truffle hunting breedso attuned to its craft that, when she bought Mila from the breeder, they made her promise she would train it up properly. Mila was a natural, finding her first truffle at just 12 weeks old. O’Toole now works as a hunter on various orchards while running her own farm, which this year harvested almost 2lb.

Read Full Article At The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/23/truffle-hunting-california-food?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR3o8zAvme9DjqPb-tMuNN5yoLap6qBMJKZv7bix_rZYVWaNhCgpF7vlKYc

6 Mar 2019

Sniffing out culinary gold

by trufflehuntress | posted in: Tesoro Mio Truffiere, Truffle Dogs, Truffle Farming in the US, Truffle Hunting, Uncategorized | 0

Mountain Democrat: By John Poimiroo March 06 2019

Sniffing out culinary gold in the heart of the Mother Lode

While walking dogs with her friends six years ago, Staci O’Toole and the other ladies fantasized about the perfect job. They joked that it would have to involve dogs, of course, plus wine, food and being outdoors.

Months later, O’Toole was in the market for a dog, Googled the criteria she sought, and two breeds popped up: the Tibetan Terrier, a herding dog, and the Lagotto Romagnolo, Italy’s truffle hunter.

Herding sparked no interest, but the idea of training a cute, curly mutt to hunt truffles, then to enjoy found fungi with wine and food had O’Toole’s imagination running wild. A Lagotto would be her next pooch.

O’Toole called a breeder, but was disappointed to learn there was a two-year waiting list for a puppy. Not only were Lagottos great at finding truffles, but they’re exceptional family dogs, don’t shed, are hypoallergenic, intelligent, have a good disposition, are compact, endearing and want to please.

The breeder recognized that O’Toole was looking for a working dog, one that would be driven to search for truffles, a trait not desirable in show or companion dogs. Working dogs are hard to place, often being returned by owners who can’t handle their obsession to find truffles. So, he promised to contact her should a working dog become available.

Four months later, O’Toole had her first Lagotto puppy and soon learned of a truffle dog training session being held at the Oregon Truffle Festival in Eugene. She took 12-week-old Mila to the festival but was told not to expect much from a dog so young.

However, Mila was a natural, sniffing out the knobby fungi soon after connecting their pungent smoky odor with being given a treat. Upon returning home to the Bay Area, O’Toole continued as an insurance executive, while training Mila as a “truffle huntress.”

Soon, O’Toole and her Lagotto were being called to Sonoma and Mendocino County truffle orchards on weekends, creating the fantasy job she and her friends had imagined. O’Toole and Mila would follow truffle hunting with good wine, food and truffle talk, hosted by wineries and farms with truffle orchards. It was a dream, come true.

Read Full Article At Mountain Democrat:h ttps://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Northern-California-is-suddenly-awash-in-locally-13592399.php?fbclid=IwAR3PNFyS8wzyS2RM72nd6JiToqHaAR_K5-XnprvPEBfq4vNh3YTPysfdz3Y#photo-16880918

6 Feb 2019

California black truffles

by trufflehuntress | posted in: Tesoro Mio Truffiere, Truffle Dogs, Truffle Farming in the US, Truffle Hunting, Truffle Huntress, Uncategorized | 0

San Francisco Chronicle : Tara Duggan Feb. 6, 2019

Northern California is suddenly awash in locally grown black truffles

For decades, enthusiasts have hoped truffles can follow wine’s path to success in the state. So far this winter, a farm in Placerville (El Dorado County) has found 1 pound of prized, elusive black truffles, leading to its first sale to a Northern California restaurant on New Year’s Eve. Around the same time, a 10-year-old Santa Rosa orchard also found its first truffle. Meanwhile, a nearby Santa Rosa orchard owned by Jackson Family Wines has unearthed an astonishing 25 pounds of truffles this season, some of which are being served in San Francisco restaurants like Saison, Birdsong and Che Fico.

About a decade ago, California-grown black or Périgord truffles were at best a dream, and at worst a long shot. That’s when about a dozen farmers started planting orchards of hazelnut and oak trees, their roots inoculated with Tuber melanosporum spores. If the orchard was carefully tended, the first black truffles could form within five to eight years, though it would take a couple more years for an orchard to really bear fruit.

10 Jan 2018

This trained dog digs up buried treasure worth as much as $900 a pound

by trufflehuntress | posted in: Uncategorized | 0

This trained dog digs up buried treasure worth as much as $900 a pound

Mila smells the aroma of buried treasure in a field of hazelnut trees north of Placerville, then paws at the ground, indicating to Staci O’Toole that deliciousness is hiding beneath the soil.

Mila is searching for one of the most expensive culinary delights – truffles. Known as the “Truffle Huntress,” Mila is a Lagotto Romagnolo dog specially trained to seek the tuberous fungi that grow alongside the roots of hazelnut and oak trees.

Earlier this month, Mila and four other truffle-hunting dogs searched for the luxury fungi in O’Toole’s truffle orchards – fields of cork oaks and hazelnut trees whose roots were dipped in truffle spores before being planted. Looking out across the rows of trees, the truffles are impossible to spot. The black nodules grow underground.

The ‘Truffle Huntress’ aims for California growth

by trufflehuntress | posted in: Tesoro Mio Truffiere, Truffle Dogs, Truffle Farming in the US, Truffle Hunting, Uncategorized | 0

abc 10 News: Author: John Bartell Jan 03 2018

Growing truffle is a relatively new thing in California, but last year’s harvest happened around this time. Most truffle is imported from France or Italy, but a few years ago Staci O’Toole bought an orchard in Placerville in hopes to grow truffle in the Golden State.

“We have hazelnut trees and Oak. They are really the only trees in nature that have truffles,” said O’Toole.

The orchard is in the beginning stages of production and in the meantime she runs a business she calls “The Truffle Huntress”.

Truffle can sell for upwards of $3,000 a pound. They grow underground and the trees in O’Toole’s orchard were inoculated with truffle spores when they were planted.

It takes about seven to 10 years for the trees to mature and the truffle to grow. To harvest the mushroom, O’Toole uses a pair of Logotto Romagnolo’s, which are dogs that are specially bred to sniff out truffle.

“Some hunters used to use pigs to find truffle. The problem with pigs, they tear up the ground and the roots,” said O’Toole.

There is only a handful of truffle orchards in the United States and harvest is kind of sporadic.

“We are not really sure when truffle season is here in Placerville because it’s so new,” said O’Toole.

It could be anytime between November and February. Last December, one of O’Toole’s dogs found a quarter pound of truffle in Sonoma.

For the past few years she has been traveling to different truffle orchards and festivals to share her knowledge about truffle hunting.

Man Made truffle orchards are starting to take off in places like Oregon and the interest is growing in the Napa Valley. O’Toole’s goal is to train dogs and their owners to find future crops.

“Much like the wine industry 60 years ago… this is still experimental we don’t know where it’s going to go,”she said.

O’Toole believes someday California will become a competitive producer of truffle.