During the whole Truffle season,but especially during the prestigiuos Fiera del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba, “Tartufi in Langa” organizes for tourists in the Langhe or Monferrato areas, “excursions in the tartufaie ”, the most amazing experience for a true truffle lover. Real outings searching for the precious white truffle and/or “truffle hunt simulation”. A truffle hunter "the Trifulao" accompanied by his dog will lead the tourist in the woods, searching for this precoius ipogeo mushroom, guided only by the dog's excepional sense of smell and by the intuition gathered during years of experinces. Detailed explanations also available in English and German, will entertain the tourists during the outing. The "trifulao" explains how the truffle grows, the different varieties of truffles, the searching technique and the dog's training. A final toast with local wine concludes the excursion and whne the search has been successful it is possible to purchase the truffles that have benn found. Also during Summer,"Tartufi in Langa" organizes real outings searching for the " the Summer search for the Black Truffle". In our Truffle and Wine section,"Tartufi in Langa" recomends restaurants, osterie, wineries and websites, where it is possible to purchase wines and truffles and/or book restaurants, osterie, winery tours and wine tasting. In our accomodation section,"Tartufi in Langa" recomends Bed & Breakfasts, Agriturismo and Hotels, in Alba, in the Langhe and in the Monferrato area.
Enjoy browsing
The Truffle,a misterious underground mushroom
Truffles are the body (carpoforo or ascocarpo) of mushrooms that complete their life cycle totally underground (they are therfore called ipogei mushrooms,in contrast with those called epigei who grow above the ground surface.
They are made of an exterior layer (peel or perizio),of variable thickness, smooth or sculputured in appearance(with bumps or wrinkles),light or dark in colour, and by an internal mass (pulp or gleba) of a colour that goes from white to brown, grey,pink,black,marked by criss-crossing 'veins',varying in thickness that contain alveoli in which find their place lots of big cell containg spores (ascospore) .
These latter ones,originated from a sexual union (that is from the union of two cells with their own cromosoms), are considered like organs comparable to the seeds of plants. The individual caratheristics of the perizio, gleba,aschi and of the spore,together with the dimensions,smell and flavour, determine the identification of the truffle specie.
How they live
Since ancient times,truffles, thanks to their underground origin,have been sorrounded by mistery. Today we know that truffles must live in symbiosis with trees in order to produce this precious tuber so sought after by food lovers. The exchange of substances between plant and truffle happens at root level by means of the micorrize,that are structured differently in each single truffle specie. Micorrizia is a sort of a sleeve (micoclena) made of 5-6 layers of small tubes called ife,that wrap around the small terminal roots of the tree.
From this meeting point,several ife sprout and all together take the name of micelio. This one by branching out in the ground,spreads even for a considerable distance from the plant searching for nutrients. At the proper time, that is when all the necessary environemental conditions are right,some of the ife cross path by so starting the formation of a "tubero”.
