Searching for that elusive truffle

Truffles for sale in a shop in Alba, Italy, December, 2016

An excerpt from my novel "Truffle Hunt," about why so many people trudge into the woods looking for truffles.
 

There must be a pretty stong motivation for hundreds, maybe thousands of men and women to get up before dawn every morning and chase their dogs through the Motovun Forest in the cold and blustery conditions of fall and winter.  Even with the forest shrinking, the tonnage of the harvest falling, and more tourists descending into Istria every year, they keep trudging through the forest every morning at daybreak.

And the reason is pretty simple.  Every day spent looking for truffles gets them one day closer to that truffle lottery ticket, that one in a million truffle growing somewhere under an oak tree in the woods.  Maybe it’s the tree that your dog took some extra time sniffing yesterday, but it wasn’t ready for digging.  Maybe today, it will be ready.  Maybe he’ll find it.  Maybe tomorrow.  Maybe next week.  Or maybe you go home with a few marbles in your pocket, too small and nicked up to sell.  You’ll clean them off and shave them over your family’s pasta tonight.  And go back into the forest tomorrow.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like my novel Truffle Hunt
Order the Truffle Hunt ebook at Amazon
Order a softcover copy of Truffle Hunt at Eckhartz Press