2025-03-11
17 分钟When you go out hunting for truffles in the woods with a dog,
you have to be quick because you're working with the dog, but you're also competing against it.
In February, I went into a patch of Douglas fir outside Eugene, Oregon.
The trees were tall and had grown in so much that the forest floor was shaded,
and that's where the dogs were running around.
Dante and Luca, two trained truffle dogs.
One specializes in black truffles, the other can find both black and white.
We parked at the edge of the woods under high voltage power lines that were crackling in the air.
As soon as we got into the forest, though, we were just communing with the dogs.
They would go tearing off, trotting around,
zigging and zagging their noses to the ground all the time.
And as soon as they thought they'd found something,
they would put their nose right down on the ground,
root around, and when they were sure, they would start to paw at it, dig, dig, dig.
And the truffle hunters I was with had to drop down to one knee and reach in and try to get
that truffle before the dog could swallow it.
Because these dogs were trained to find truffles, but they naturally enjoy eating them.
I'm Pete Wells.
I am a correspondent for the New York Times, and I went to Eugene,
Oregon, to hunt truffles, taste truffles, and talk about truffles.