bringing the people behind our food to
life the truffles like no other food
that I know of
this is the classic Oregon truffle
forest douglas-fir between 15 and 30
years old
paradise truffles are just like Pinot
Noir they like a view they like a great
beneficial climate happy people with
appreciative palates it’s going to be
truffle hunting the movie there will be
mud now for the high-tech part the
truffle vesicle I’ve seen charge that
indicate that the epicentre of North
American white truffles is actually in
the northern Willamette Valley which is
where we are which is a great
happenstance for me because I can go
hunting truffles nearby truffles grow on
the roots of Douglas fir which are very
shallow and that’s the other reason you
can you can rake for truffles in Europe
they grow under hardwoods they’re under
much much denser harder soil the truffle
is actually a mushroom which figured out
a way to grow and yet not have nearly as
much spore dispersal as a full-grown
mushroom something because it stayed
underground these are a few spots where
I dug the last few weeks I found some
there but what you look for are little
telltale signs where animals have been
digging they’re really the only food
that depends on an animal consuming it
in order for the species to survive
that’s the reason truffles throw out
this amazingly complex grouping of gases
to attract animals to themselves what
the animals will then spread the spores
you can paint your own picture for
yourself and exactly how that happens
see this but that makes them unique
right who
yep squirrel beat me to it again I’d
like to tell people that sometimes
you’re out there for 45 minutes an hour
two hours you’re not finding anything
and then you find this little tiny
truffle about like that well that’s
about a five minute truffle because it
shoots just enough endorphin into your
brain to keep you going for another five
minutes there’s one right there see it
that’s a it’s approaching full ripeness
may not be blowing off a lot of gas but
it’s going to be blowing gas pretty soon
and that’ll make it just right for
producing oil but then every once in a
while you get a white truffle about like
that that’s a two-hour truffle and that
shoots enough endorphins into your brain
so that you can go for another two hours
but the reward of finding it just kind
of keeps you going we find one you want
to find another one some more in here I
think mounds from previous year so
there’s one when you want to find one of
a certain size you want to get an even
bigger one there’s a certain amount of
aesthetics involved as well ah fishermen
for instance they’ll brag about the size
of their fish a truffle hunter will brag
about the size of his truck yeah so it
kind of keeps you going it sort of this
little game you play with yourself I
know it gets boring for a camp person
but I get excited every time I see one I
get that adrenaline going I’m totally
into the experience of digging truffles
and bringing them out and finding the
real nice ones I’ve stopped trying to
solve problems when I’m out in the woods
digging truffles which a lot of people
would look at as pretty much of a of a
mindless exercise and you know what
that’d be totally right but that’s the
beauty of it it’s sort of a Zen sort of
thing in a lot of ways where you just
kind of let your mind go you’re
concentrating on one thing you’re
smelling the dirt you’re listening to
the birds you’re listening to a
pissed-off squirrel every once in a
while who’s looking at the truffle that
he was going to have for supper there’s
one I missed and now you’re just totally
enjoying that enjoying nature there is a
abundance of these truffles in this area
and no he’s amazed me that nobody ever
really bothered to capture their essence
you know and their oil until I started
researching and understand why it was so
difficult and that’s when I began my own
personal research not producing an
Oregon trophy this is without doubt the
most labor-intensive food producing
system in the
States harvesting the truffles and then
it takes anywhere from two to four weeks
to cure the truffles the oil over 20 day
period is infused with the truffles and
then the truffle oil has to be aged for
four to five months before it’s ready to
go it takes four to six months to
produce the soil from the time that the
truffles are harvest the most important
thing that you need to consider is how
the character of the truffle how those
gases are going to get into the oil and
under what conditions we’re still in the
process of perfecting it but we’re a lot
farther along than we were four years
ago when we get when we G can produce it
we’re all set to go what I like about
the Oregon truffles is whether or not
I’m shaving it on dish you’re making a
truffle oil all of those gases that
constitute the character of that truffle
are in there and the great thing about
it is to expose somebody to an Oregon
truffle through the truffle oil or the
truffles themselves and have them say
god I had no idea nobody told me about
this before Oregon truffles aren’t
supposed to be this good and that’s what
I spent the last 15 years doing is
unveiling some of those mysteries as you
can see can take an awfully long time
to get a sufficient amount of truffles
to make oil you know let’s move down the
hill and back towards the house and they
kind of look and poke as I go they tend
to be fairly scattered yet some days are
better than others
I’m questioned about that one back to
the man
there is though truffles contained
upwards of 50 different volatile organic
compounds what we call VOCs so the
common a combination of all of those
compounds makes the olfactory reception
to a truffle oil something far more
complex and what we’ve ever experienced