Indie, a seven-month-old Springer Spaniel, is in her first season truffle hunting Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Indie may be just a pup, but she has a good nose for truffles.
The seven-month-old Springer Spaniel has just finished her first season sniffing out the culinary delicacy at Trufflewood, owned by Lance and Nikki Dodd, also newcomers to the truffle industry.
They have been surprised at Indie's ability to smell out the Black Périgord truffles, which grow at their truffière at Paengaroa in the Bay of Plenty.
The half-hectare stand of 210 oak and hazelnut trees was originally planted by previous owners Colin and Maureen Binns in 2008.
Lance and Nikki Dodd in their Paengaroa truffière. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The Dodds are excited at taking on the venture 25 years after being forced off their farms in Zimbabwe, during that country's land-reform programme.
Lance studied horticulture and has since had several roles over more than a decade in New Zealand's kiwifruit industry, but the "mysterious" pungent, underground fungi are a novelty.
"I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know what a truffle was, until we came here," he said. "That appealed to me in terms of learning.
"It's very unique, it's very special, it's very rare."
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On a chilly day in late winter, with the truffle harvest pretty well done, we head out into the paddock to see if Indie can sniff out any more.
Nikki has her on a harness and lead, encouraging her, as the pup quickly moves from tree to tree, her nose at work, tail wagging. It appears the harvest is not yet over and we're all soon heads down to the soil, sniffing the ground alongside Indie.
Indie the truffle dog looks on, as Nikki puts her nose to the ground on the scent of a truffle. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Each likely spot is marked with a small red flag and Lance moves in with a small digging tool to gently scratch the surface in search of the elusive truffle.
"I would say she's bang on every time," Lance said, noting it was the humans who missed finding them.
"Sometimes, they can smell so strong and they'll be the size of a pea, and you've just missed it and you get all excited, thinking there's got to be something really good in here," Nikki said.
Nikki holds one of the late harvest truffles Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The smell is strong and unmistakable. For Nikki, it has a whiff of Christmas about it and, for Lance, it's a little more complex.
"I didn't like the smell the first time," he said. "It had a sort of beetrooty, garlicky, strange smell.
"I wasn't sure what I was smelling. To be fair, as the seasons progressed, I fell in love with it.
"It's a good smell. It smells earthy, chocolatey and, yeah, I love it."
They trained Indie by using frozen truffle in a little pill bottle with holes drilled in the end, hiding it around the house as a game, with a treat at the end. It turned out her sniffing skills were outstanding.
"It's just something she seems to want to do," Nikki said. "She's also tipped our life upside down - she's like a whirlwind."
They managed to harvest about 40kg this season, which generally runs from June to August for the Black Périgord variety.
With about three times the average rainfall and earwigs to contend with, the season has been challenging, Lance said.
"At least half of that, we threw away, because it was rotten."
The Dodds gained, on average, $2 a gram for their truffle harvest this year, but yield was significantly down due to wet weather. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Still, the couple are not put off, saying it's scary, but exciting to be involved in a whole new branch of farming.
They also love taking the fresh truffles direct to chefs, and are cultivating contacts and ideas for truffle-flavoured foods, as they head into a new season.
A good truffle specimen can earn them $4 a gram, but Nikki said the tour groups to Trufflewood bring in the cash at this stage.
With some two dozen cruise ships due this season, they looking forward to hosting more passengers at the truffière to learn about truffle growing, walk in their covenanted native forest and enjoy some truffle-flavoured treats, whipped up by Nikki.
"You hear all the birds and you see all the greenery," Lance said. "They're blown away by the farm, they just sit and absorb."
The Dodd family, including Matthew (14) and Hayley (17), with dogs Simba and Indie Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Back in the truffière, tree pruning and, in November, inoculating will give the trees a boost for the next season.
"It feels so nice to feel like you have something of your own that you're working towards, something that's so special," Nikki said.
"While it's scary, it's just nice to be able to potentially - soon, hopefully - say, I think I've found a place I can call home," Lance added.
Learn more:
- Find out more about Trufflewood here
