Sniffin' It Out

February 14th, 2019

Rumour has it that a rare European delicacy is lurking beneath trees in the Hills – truffles.

Two experts in detecting hidden objects are attempting to make this highly sought-after fungus their business.

They normally lead working dogs on missions to find illicit and potentially dangerous materials but now SAPOL canine handlers Dean Poletta and Warren Rogers are turning their skills to find the finer things in life.

“We needed another project to sink our teeth into and thought, ‘Well, what are our strengths?’” Dean said.

“We train dogs to detect so we did some thinking outside the box and I remembered how I’d read about South Australia’s young truffle industry.

“You need dogs to find truffles in the ground and, since there doesn’t appear to be anyone training dogs for that in South Australia but a few more truffle farms are popping up, it looked like we discovered a niche in the market.”

Truffles are the fruiting body of a subterranean fungus that grow close to trees and have long been a highly valued food.

In Europe, pigs have been used to sniff out truffles in forests for centuries but you won’t find hogs hunting around Hills properties any time soon.

“We never really thought of using a pig to be honest,” Dean said.

“Between Warren and myself we’ve got 20 years of dog handling experience so dogs are what we know.”

Once the idea of searching for truffles was in place, Dean and Warren had to find the right pooch to train.

“We work with Labradors and wanted a bit more of a working dog since they’ll be running through lots of paddocks and trees,” Dean said.

“So we learned about the Koolie and met with a breeder in Kuitpo and picked up a puppy with plenty of drive from her.”

Ruby is still a pup but her training is well underway with Dean and Warren using truffle oil to get her used to the smell.

Through word of mouth they have gotten in contact with people on potential truffle-laden properties.
“Living in the Adelaide Hills I know people who know people who heard from other people about having truffle trees,” Dean said.

“The truffle farms here are very early on – no one’s producing commercially here yet.

“It’s a bit of a secretive industry but there is the potential to make a fair bit of money out of it.”

Marco Marinelli is the Mushroom Man in the Adelaide Central Market.

He has Adelaide’s foremost truffle and fungus proprietor and has helped Dean and Warren get to know what they and Ruby will be hoping to find.

“I’ve been selling European truffles for about 15 years,” Marco said.

“We handle white truffles from Italy and black truffles from France with some black truffles coming from Tasmania and Western Australia in the last decade.”

Marco said Australia has only had truffles for around 20 years.

“What they do is coat the roots of young tree seedlings with a kind of truffle slurry,” Marco said.
“Usually in Australia these are oak or hazelnut trees.

“They look after the sapling for about 18 months before planting.

“It’s said you don’t get good truffles for another 7-10 years.”

A relationship between the fungus and the tree forms, producing the fruit hidden beneath the earth.

Once you send Ruby the truffle-tracking Koolie into your paddock, she will use her sensitive and finely-tuned olfactory system to find likely truffle locations.

Her little scratches will mark the spot to dig.

Unearthed, the black fungus can go to market for up to a whopping $3,000 per kilogram.

“This is due to a combination of factors,” Marco said.

“First of all they taste amazing.

“Truffles have a unique highly pungent aroma and they make everything better by enhancing all the flavours of the dish.

“Their relative rarity then adds to the price.”

It’s no understatement to say there are a lot of paddocks with a lot of trees in the Hills.

Even for those few people who know they have truffle-treated trees growing on their properties, there is no guarantee that the fungus is living and ready for harvest.

Whether Dean and Warren will uncover stinky gold mines remains to be seen but Dean is hopeful.

“This season starts in winter and we hope to have Ruby working by the start of June,” he said.

“What’s on our side is that the truffle industry here is still young.

“So if we can get Ruby out this year, work out the kinks then the following season train up another dog we’ll be able to cover more ground.

“It’s going to be really when Ruby finds her first truffle.”

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