Truffle-tracking dogs find the delicacy in local forestlands
There’s culinary gold in them thar tree roots.
That’s because winter is truffle season in the rainy woods of Snohomish County.
But before chefs can garnish bowls of creamy polenta with paper-thin slices of shaved truffle, they need Kristin Rosenbach’s dogs to find the elusive fungi.
Rosenbach, 46, runs Wagnificent K9 Truffle Dogs out of her home near Arlington. Her four dogs are trained to find truffles, and she teaches the skill to clients’ dogs, in the field and online.
Truffles grow underground in the roots of trees. In the old days, pigs were used to sniff them out. The thing is, pigs like to eat truffles. Dogs don’t — and they’re much easier to work with, Rosenbach said.
Truffle dogs are trained to find only ripe truffles. Unripe ones are worthless, and once harvested, unripe truffles will not ripen. That’s why it’s a terrible idea to rake for truffles — you’ll get unripe truffles along with the ripe ones, and you’ll do environmental damage, Rosenbach said.
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