The Daily Mail (14th October 1012) managed to pick up on this story before us, but we liked it so much we thought we would share it with you…When Nellie the English bull terrier kept digging up the back garden, her owners were not best pleased. But it turned out Nellie wasn’t just enjoying a little meaningless destruction – she was busy discovering a gold mine. The couple were astonished to find their dog had unearthed a stash of valuable black summer truffles. Nellie has been finding truffles for the past six years – uncovering 500 grams of the fungi this year alone.

The prime tree planting time of November – March is now upon us. Traditionally, November to March are the best months to plant, as the trees are dormant and planting in the winter allows the truffley-roots plenty of time to settle in before mycorrhiza and root-growth starts again in spring.

The third annual Napa Truffle Festival is rapidly approaching and will again showcase the revered black winter Périgord truffle: Tuber melanosporum, while bringing together a unique gathering of leading truffle cultivation experts and scientists, special guests from the food and wine world, and internationally-renowned Michelin Star chefs to discuss, examine, probe, prepare, demonstrate and, finally, pair truffles with wines to feast upon for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Despite producing truffles on some very young trees this year, there are still many plantations out there that are well managed but are virgin territory for the truffle dogs. Some of these sites are in their 5th year and could well be producing truffles right now, but we need some trained dogs to help us find them.