Vaucluse - Trouffles, France

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SECRET YET STAR
Take green oak or hazelnut trees, planted on
chalky soil with a pH around 7, a Mediterranean
climate and annual rainfall between 600 and 900
mm. Other ingredients include rainfall on the feast
of Saint John or the 14th of July, or perhaps the
15th of August. A little rainfall in autumn doesn’t
hurt either… With all of the above, you have every
likelihood of having truffles on your land… yet you
still have to know how to “caver” or dig for them
at just the right time, between, mid-November and
mid-March… Clearly, the truffle has not yet
revealed all its long-held secrets.
The tuber melanosporum, as the botanists call it,
truffle in French, rabasse in Provençal, retains a
great deal of mystery. You can never really grow it,
and you have to be quite expert to truly dig for it
with any degree of skill. The truffle is invisible,
and man has to learn how to look for any clues.
You have to be able to identify the “brûlé” or
seemingly scorched area where no vegetation
grows at the base of the tree where the truffle is.
Animals can smell out the truffle. Pigs love them
and can find them easily but do not like to give
them up, and often swallow them before you can
retrieve the truffle. A well-trained dog can become
a great truffle hunter. Then there’s the fly, who
likes to lay its eggs near truffles. If the truffle hunter is lucky enough to see a fly take off when
he stirs up the earth with his “picouloun”, he may
well have an essential clue as to the whereabouts of
the famous fungi. Despite all these obstacles,
Vaucluse produces and sells some ¾ of all French
truffles. Which of course means that the truffle
markets in Richerenches, Valréas and Carpentras
are crowded with professionals, especially
gastronomic chefs.
Yet on the markets too rules and customs stand,
like the truffle, with a certain aura of mystery.
Though Provence is reputed to be full of big
talkers, the world of the truffle remains quite
discrete, even silent. Yet there is also a lot show.
Each year, Richerenches celebrates the Truffle mass
in January. The confraternities of truffle growers
enter the church with great ceremony. During the
offertory, the church fills with the subtly divine
fragrance of the rabasse, for the professionals
donate truffles as their offering. These truffles are
then auctioned off by the priest in the village hall.
In 2004, 3.6 kilos of truffles brought in the tidy sum
of 4698 Euros. Clearly, the truffle indeed deserves
its nickname of “black diamond”.

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