The Crete Senesi Truffle

Discovering the truffle in San Giovanni d'Asso.

For those who want to deepen their knowledge of the truffle, just below the road through San Giovanni d'Asso, in the center of the town, a small educational trail dedicated to the truffle has been created, called the Orto di Sesto in honor of Sestilio Dominici, who had tended these spaces for many years. The materials are local, the basin in the center allows the garden to be irrigated without waste, and medicinal plants and trees considered essential for the tuber's development, such as holm oaks, oaks, poplars, turkey oaks, and limes, are favored. The garden is the perfect complement to the Truffle Museum, which has been set up in the Rocca: a complete immersion in this fascinating world.

The truffle hunter at work

Then if any aspiring prospector would like to try his hand in the field-or rather, in the woods-it is possible to be guided by a local truffle hunter with his dogs. The day has variable costs, which, mind you, always exclude the living cost of the tubers found: it's easy to see why, since some people call them the "gold of the Crete..." Truffle gathering, or, as the English say, "hunting," is subject to seasonality, but not too much in the Crete Senesi. This is because the "king of truffles," the prized white truffle, has a harvesting period from October to December, the summer truffle or scorzone, from June to November, and the bianchetto or marzuolo truffle, from January to mid-April.

In addition to the many areas of the Crete Senesi where the truffle develops and grows spontaneously, there are also many areas called "controlled truffle grounds": these are natural truffle grounds improved with appropriate cultivation practices and increased by planting specific tree plants called "tartufigene." This ensures the continuity of harvesting without damaging the previous ecosystem, which is why truffle hunters, who have been organized into associations for years now, are the first to safeguard, protect and enhance their territory.

Truffle in autumn presentation

Like gold

Since the truffle, like all mushrooms, consists of almost 80 percent water, we can well say that it is one of the most expensive waters in the world. Certainly the white truffle, the Tuber Magnatum Pico, is the most valuable, and it reaches quotations not unlike those of gold. What makes it so valuable that it even has to be auctioned, and has its own stock exchange? First of all, the difficulty of the search, done in accordance with natural timing and without forcing nature: if one year or season yields meager spoils, prices soar. And then, its value varies according to its size, species and the pleasure it gives to the palate: each species has different scent and aroma, more or less intense, given by its mineral components, and it flavors every dish in a unique way that gives no room for half-measures: either you love it or you hate it.

A newly found truffle, the seeker's hand still dirty from the earth that covered it

A centuries-old history

Known since the time of the Sumerians and Greeks (perhaps in a different version than today), for the Romans it had, as it does today, a very high price. In the Middle Ages it remained the food of wild animals, and did not return to the tables of the rich and noble until the Second Renaissance, especially in France. Pigs, with a very fine sense of smell and a glutton for truffles, were used for searching. Searching gradually became a favorite amusement of the nobles, and perhaps for this reason they began to replace the swine with more elegant and lighter animals, such as dogs, already companions of men in hunting foxes, birds, and wild boar. With the undoubted advantage that dogs can be trained much better: hogs generally eat truffles before their owners can get their hands on them! In the 1800s its fame exploded and in Italy the main collection centers became Piedmont (Count Cavour also used it as a diplomatic gift), Umbria, Tuscany. The rest is modern-day history.