Chanced upon something I'd never seen before. I was at a relatives house checking out some potential firewood, and as we were walking between his Hazelnut bushes, my brother scuffed his foot on something that was under some grass he had just mowed. This is what we found: Rather fragrant, like a mix between a fresh dug potato and a fresh mushroom. Heavy for it's size, and no stem or other roots visible. We both wondered if it was a truffle, so we took it inside cleaned it and cut it to compare to truffle images. Well, the wrong interior color for a white truffle, but somewhat similar to the interior of a black truffle... A few more "Brave image searches" later, we settled on it being a False Truffle - basically a type of mushroom that evolved to never open it's cap to spread spores via the wind. It relies on rodents to eat it and once it passes through their digestive system, the spores are ready to grow (hopefully under another nut bearing plant). I had never heard about these before... Of course, that means we aren't going to get rich selling truffles... But still a pretty cool learning experience!
Just recently watched a show on TV about truffle hunting in Oregon. They had a dog and found several truffles including some false truffles. Often wanted to hunt some. Interesting experience you had!
