Bountiful truffle harvest from southern New South Wales praised by chef from world's top eatery

They may be fetching around $2,500 a kilo, but for hunters of 'black gold' of the fungi world, a simple homemade sausage mix is their preferred reward.

The truffles are numerous and full of aroma after being brought on early in southern NSW by early frosts (Picture : Michael Cavanagh)

Truffle harvest is well underway, with growers in southern New South Wales enjoying an earlier than expected bounty.

Heavy frosts have helped bring the fungi on and growers, Peter and Kate Marshall, are out in their paddocks with Sal a Labrador, and Shadow a Daschund Labrador cross, leading the way.

The dogs guide their owners to the treasures, found just below the surface of the ground, near the oak and hazelnut trees.

The tree's roots have been inoculated with the truffle strain and this year there is an abundance.

Once the dogs indicate where a truffle is, Kate Marshall carefully scrapes the soil away, revealing the prized food, then prises it from the soil.

It is then that the dogs know they will be rewarded.

"The treats I use are little pieces of sausage that we have the local butcher make from our own sheep!" Mrs Marshall explained, as she was on her knees carefully extracting a truffle, discovered by the dogs.

"I can make sure there is a little less salt and other things in there, because they get quite a few treats during the season and I am always concerned about their health."

Given the success so far, the dogs will certainly be enjoying numerous "treats" over the next few months.

The truffles coming from the Marshalls' farm, located south of Braidwood in southern New South Wales, are numerous and full of aroma.

They have developed "their full set of characteristics" three weeks earlier than what would normally be expected.

In 14 years the Marshalls have transformed an old dairy farm, denuded of trees, to a lush green property with the original waterways, which had disappeared, once again flowing with crystal clear water.

Some of those trees include oaks that originate from Mexico, which Mr Marshall, an ANU forestry graduate from some years ago, believes is part of the success that they are now enjoying.

"Our truffles are well fed this year," he said.

"They are also very happy about the weather; we had a long dry summer.

"We had some thunderstorms that they are used to back in Provence, and now we have had 11 good frosts, that is what activates the flavour."

Even with the truffles coming on earlier than normal and in greater numbers, the demand cannot be met.

"We have a standing order from restaurants in China, France, Singapore and Japan for a 100 times more truffles that we can possibly produce." Mr Marshall said.

His passion for his product is echoed by several young men, hard at work in the homestead kitchen, using the truffles to come up with a lunch.

They are no ordinary young cooks.

They happen to be chefs from Noma Restaurant in Copenhagen, ranked number one eatery in the world four times by 'Restaurant Magazine'; to many, the bible when it comes to writing about fine cuisine.

Sam Miller, who is originally from York in England, has been sent by the Noma group along with two colleagues to establish a restaurant in Sydney.

They were travelling around regional NSW and Victoria, familiarising themselves with local produce, even getting down on all fours to forage for fungi with the Marshalls.

Mr Miller is full of praise for the fungi, even brave enough to possibly incur the wrath of the country famous for its gathering of truffles using pigs.

"I think the (Australian) truffles have come on a lot here," he said while scrambling eggs to be served with the truffles.

"They certainly beat the Scandinavian ones and I'd say they would be as good as the French!

"Some of the French would be upset, I think others would be more open minded to it."

While Shadow and Sal may prefer the sausage rewards, not all the truffles make the markets.

Those that don't quite make the grade, end up being a part of a Marshall family truffle meal.

Given the optimism of the season, no doubt there will be a few of those, without creating too much of a dent in their ever growing orders for the black gold.

Source : ABC Rural   June 9th 2015