Actually, I think a lot of them have switched to dogs these days, as dogs are less likely to eat the truffles ;)
Posted on 06/03/2004 9:26:37 AM PDT by tjwmason
Not content with taking on the French at winemaking, Australia is muscling in on another hallowed Gallic tradition, truffle growing.
The Australians claim that their truffles are bigger, juicier and tastier than those produced in France, just as their cabernet sauvignons and shirazes are touted as richer and smoother.
Since the first tentative attempts to grow the prized black truffle in Tasmania in the 1990s, truffle orchards have been established in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. They have been planted in areas which most closely mimic France's hot, dry summers and cold, rainy winters.
Australia produced only 110lb of "black gold" last year, compared with the four tons grown in France, but the industry is developing rapidly.
Plans to export Australian truffles to restaurants in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and even Paris may anger French purists, but Australian producers say they can take advantage of the difference in seasons between the hemispheres.
While French truffles are gathered from December to February, Australia's truffle season begins today and runs until the end of August.
"So far we haven't been at loggerheads because we are producing truffles at different times of the year," said Dr Nick Malajczuk, an expert in truffle cultivation, who has planted 13,000 hazel and oak trees near Manjimup in Western Australia.
"It's not going to be like the wine industry. We are not going to be dumping huge quantities of truffles on the market."
Any suggestion that Australian truffles are inferior to those of Perigord and Provence is swiftly dismissed. "They are identical except that ours are bigger," said Wally Edwards, another truffle grower from Western Australia.
"The French may think we are a bit cheeky, but they'll be able to have fresh truffles out of season."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Poor little France. Australia just seems to be better than they are at everything these days, even growing truffles.
In France, even the fungus is inferior.
Do the Aussies use pigs to find the truffles?
To lurkers, yes pigs are used because of their superior olfactory sense to sniff out the truffles. The pictures of are kinda of funny seeing truffle hunters with a pig on a leash searching for the black gold. The handler usually has some corn on hand to distract the pig so that the pig doesn't eat the truffle.
The Australians claim that their truffles are bigger, juicier and tastier than those produced in France, just as their cabernet sauvignons and shirazes are touted as richer and smoother.
The traditinoal French truffle hunt season must be really exciting. Does the master of the local truffle hunt cry the French version of "Tally Ho!" as the pigs are set loose to snuff out the stationary fungi?:)
Actually, I think a lot of them have switched to dogs these days, as dogs are less likely to eat the truffles ;)
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