TRUFFLES

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Our truffles have been featured in the Daily Mail, see here

Chef Roger Jones is one of the few lucky people to be allowed to do his own foraging at the secret truffle site in Wiltshire. He spent half an hour there yesterday morning - and took a kilo of summer truffles back to his restaurant, The Harrow at Little Bedwyn, near Marlborough. "It would take you a day to find a kilo of truffles in France," said Jones. "The key is we don't dig the truffles out. We wait until they come to the surface and we only pick 30 or 40% of what is there." Last night customers at The Harrow were enjoying a taste of shaved truffle on wild sea bass with a little salt, lime and olive oil. Jones said the early truffles gave dishes a nice "hazelnutty" taste. Later in the season they would be a little stronger, provide "forest floor" favours and go well with fish such as turbot. For a simple meal, he recommends adding truffle to an omelette or scrambled egg. But don't overcook it - often truffle is better grated on raw.

Richard Jones, Mr Jones 12 year old son is the main hunter of the family and takes his hamster Brian along with him to search for these Truffles. Brian has been trained by Richard to sniff out these Black Diamonds.

What do truffles mean to you?  Chocolate coated, calorie rich treats or expensive edible fungi, to be shaved sparingly onto risotto or flavouring in ‘posh’ olive oil?  Last year Roger Jones made an astounding discovery when he became acting Truffle Hound for a local farmer, and was harvesting 15 kilos of Truffles a week, throughout the Autumn.

The farming couple, wish to remain anonymous, but  fungi expert Roger Phillips was immediately called in to examine the find, before sending samples to Kew Gardens to be classified, categorised and recorded. “We haven’t seen truffles in this sort of quantity in the UK for 80 yrs!  “It is an amazing find; I am flabbergasted at how large they are with some of the biggest truffles larger than records I have heard of” commented specialist Roger Phillips. 

A further highlight was the finding of a massive 540g Truffle by Roger’s 9 year old son Richard. Most of the truffles were sold to top London Restaurants through a distributor at Coven Garden, but of course Roger was able to use as much as he needed in his kitchen. These Truffles have a harvest period of between August and February, and are not as pungent as the French Black Truffles but have a fantastic nutty taste and delicate aroma.

Some of the weekly collection of Truffles sourced locally

Richard Jones Age 9 finding the largest UK Truffle at 540g

Truffle Hunting, car driven by Rhiannon Jones

Useful way of collecting Truffles