Celebrating France's Day of Giving with Truffles

 

What better way to participate in France's Telethon weekend - 3 days of fund-raising across the country to support research into childhood diseases - than to go to truffle school?

The day dawned fine and foggy.  I skipped the weekly market because I was still tired and the last thing I needed was more groceries.  Sue and Jonty headed down from cake and coffee, and we struck out at the civilised hour of 11:30 in search of the local truffle farm raising money for the Telethon.

I admit to having only a vague idea of exactly what we were embarking upon.  

We took the scenic route, missing a couple of turns, but remarking on the beauty of countryside neither of us had been through before, and eventually topped a hill and found the driveway we were searching for.

And what a find!  We spent the next hour and a half or so in the company of our gracious and knowledgable host Brieuc as he personally walked us through a tour of his young trufficulture.

Brieuc confirmed our observation on the way over that terroir suitable for wine grape growing overlaps significantly with that suitable for truffles.  He also emphasized that it was very important to his family that they grow and harvest truffles in a way that is completely in harmony with nature, and they set up their trufficulture to encourage wildlife and native flora.

Farming truffles requires a serious leap of faith - again, not unlike producing wine.  Inoculated oak trees are purchased from special growers, planted and then pruned carefully for 7-8 years before the first harvest will be realised.

They are very sensitive to weather, soil, and other conditions and cannot be grown on any land that has used agricultural chemicals in  the past, so it took Brieuc 5-6 years to find a suitable property.  Truffles will only attach to new roots, so tree roots have to be trimmed every year.  There are also male and female truffles, with the web connections just underneath the soil we are only now really beginning to understand, acting as the female truffle's uterus - thus, more male truffle injections are needed every year.  

And guess what?  It takes just about 9 months to grow a truffle.  Crazy, oui?

Few people use pigs to find truffles any more as they're hard to manage and they would just as soon eat the truffle than hand it over.  Any dog can be trained, easily, at any age.  And, there is even a specific fly that can lead farmers to the perfect truffle at the perfect time - in fact, they are the best locators when the conditions are right as their standards are higher than either pigs or dogs.

I wish I could report that we came away with an ounce or two of truffles tucked snuggly into our bags or some truffle butter, but alas that commerce all took place in record time at the  weekly truffle faire early this morning and we wouldn't have stood a chance.  Instead, I soaked in some fascinating information about a vocation that is both as old as time and constantly evolving to adapt to technology, science, and climate change.  And put a few euros into the fight against childhood disease.  

Merci, Sue and Jonty - a day well spent.