PORTLAND, Ore. — In this week's "Let's Get Out There," we head to the Northern Willamette Valley to seek out what some would call treasure. But it's not Oregon wine; it's something underground: Oregon's highly sought-after truffles.
“It's kind of Easter egg hunting for adults,” said Shane Clayton of Washougal.
Shuffling along the surface with a small group is self-proclaimed truffle ambassador Ava Chapman. She and her dog, lab Joey, are here to hunt truffles.
“They can be right on top, they can be six to eight inches down, you just don't know,” she said to the group, constructed by First Nature Tours, a luxury adventure company based in Oregon.
Chapman and her company Dirt Dogs work alongside First Nature Tours on these truffle hunting tours with Joey. Joey’s job is to dig.
“A truffle is an underground fungus,” Chapman said. “Think of a truffle… as the fruiting body as if it were an apple on a tree.”
“We are so blessed to be in a place where the amount of activities that you can do here is endless,” said First Nature Tours’ director of operations Daniel Wild.
“This process will move as fast as Joey moves,” Wild said. “Once she spots one, she marks one. Starts sniffing at it and digging.”
Once Joey signals she’s found a truffle, the group members gently nudge her out of the way and carefully dig them up, otherwise Joey may inadvertently eat them. Chapman keeps the canine motivated with a treat bag in her pocket.
First Nature’s truffle tour costs $195 per person. It’s a seasonal trip for guests ages ten and above. It includes transportation to a location (to preserve secrecy, since truffle are so highly sought after), a gourmet lunch on site with truffle-infused foods, and of course you get to clean and take home the coveted spoils.
Hunting truffles with a dog isn’t the only method, but it may be the most efficient because Joey moves quickly and has an almost perfect track record of truffle detection. And she only paws at ripe truffles, making for great quality control.
“I didn't know what to expect,” said Melissa Heston who was visiting from Ohio. “I knew we were going to go into some wooded forested area and I was excited to see Joey, and Joey was just a boatload of fun.”
“Watching a dog that has a job and is passionate about the job is so cool,” added Clayton, his second time hunting truffles.
“What a beautiful thing to have this dog come into my life and just open up a whole other world to me not only underground and the mycology of the forest,” Chapman said. “But also in the friendship and community of other truffle hunters.”
For more information on First Nature Tours or their Truffle Forage & Feast experience, visit firstnaturetours.com.
Let's Get Out there airs once a week on KGW's 4 p.m. newscast and The Good Stuff, which airs Monday-Thursday at 7 p.m. We're including viewer photos for this series. You can text your photos to 503-226-5088 or post them on the KGW Facebook page.