In the UK (and elsewhere?) enterprises training dogs to sniff for truffles are booming. Yes, truffle hunting is a booming business. And what’s happening is this: businesses engaged in training dogs to sniff out truffles are oversubscribed as it has become very popular because the market rate for white truffles in the UK ranges up to £5000 a kilogram. Black truffles are cheaper: £1300 a kilogram. The point is that truffles are very valuable and if you can pick the right spot in the countryside and if you can train your dog to sniff out truffles it would appear that you can make a lot of money in quite an enjoyable way. It is a combination of walking your dog and making money.
The Sunday Times reports on the truffle hunting season and how Britain has fallen in love with searching for this prized fungus. Apparently, you can spot truffle hunting hounds across the UK from Sutton to Stirling.
The English Truffle Company’s training sessions are fully booked up until January according to The Sunday Times. That’s when the season ends. It’s expected that this year there will be a bumper crop of this rare but edible fungi which, as I write this, are being unearthed across Britain’s woodlands with the assistance of well-trained sniffer dogs.
One person running training courses for dogs is Melissa Waddingham. She helps to organise the annual UK Truffle Festival in Plumpton, East Sussex. She runs training courses and I’m told that the Italian dog breed Lagotto Romagnolo is the best at finding truffles. The springer spaniel is also rated very highly as a truffle hunting dog.
So popular are Melissa Waddingham’s dog training courses that she is turning away applicants. She said “15 years ago nobody would talk about truffles. But it has grown incredibly. I think I’m busier training dogs than taking people out by themselves at the moment.”
My thoughts about this – and perhaps I’m being too commercial – is that the popularity in training dogs to hunt for truffles is because of the popularity of money! Particularly at this time in the UK when the economy has gone through a difficult moment, when there’s been high inflation and less money in the pocket. High mortgage rates have contributed to less disposable income. People are searching for other ways to make a few bob and truffle hunting isn’t a bad idea.
Truffles have become more popular but it appears that the link between the aristocracy and truffle eating has been entirely eroded by their popularity. It also appears that there are companies producing artificial truffle flavours which is debased the rarity of the true item.
One person, Zak Frost, director of Wiltshire Truffles says that the truffle market has become a bit of a con because all truffle-flavoured products are in fact flavoured with a chemical called 2,4-dithiapentane. Nothing to do with the real thing. It’s a nasty artificial version of the white truffle flavour according to The Sunday Times journalist, Stuart Heritage.
The real thing has a “primitive allure” according to Zak Frost. He says that the truffle has evolved to have this desirable smell because they need to be eaten by animals and then digested and passed out in waste where they can then regrow. It’s a kind of survival instinct.
It seems to me that there is a danger of devaluing the truffle as there are so many people searching for them. This would be a question of supply and demand. If supply is increased dramatically without a concomitant increase in demand the market value of the truffle will decrease under normal market forces.
Waddingham explains to dog owners on her dog training courses the “truffle code of conduct”. It’s a secretive world, truffle hunting. She shows the trainees where she searches for truffles but she insists that they do not use her area. She asks them to go away and search elsewhere.
The truffle is “up there with caviar and cashmere as a shorthand for luxury” according to Stuart Heritage. And people like a bit of luxury but as mentioned the more you search for them and find them the less luxurious they become. Luxury is linked to rarity.
In the meantime, while they are still rare and while they are still incredibly expensive you might be able to make a bob or two if you can train your dog to find them.
