Reply To: Chris (access until November 15, 2014)

[Alana McGee]

Any photos are good photos. Thanks for attaching them!

That truffle has definitely seen better days…. Now you know. That is generally not what we like to train with. That is what a Oregon winter white looks like that has been previously frozen and then defrosted for a while. The freezing process messes with them, by breaking down those cell walls it allows them to decay faster unless kept in that state. It may smell truffly- but what you want is the really heady diesel gasoline smell on Oregon whites, not “mushroomy”. Mushroomy/honey is fine, but it is what we consider a secondary or tertiary characteristic with Tuber oregonense.

If Kristin weren’t moving currently she’d jump in here and say “THROW IT AWAY” no question.

My guess is it is very soft and if you squeeze it brownish water/liquid comes out, yes?

The cotton/qtips you put with it I think still may be valuable for training, but not being able to smell it myself, bit of a toss up. Do not use the actual truffle itself in scenarios. It should stay in the freezer. Hope that was helpful though.

If you do want to get frozen ones to work with (that are good decent quality and ok!) I can come up with a couple of sources. We are out, but I think a couple of the Oregon mushroom folks may have some. Or it is only a couple of months until the season starts, and honestly, if you work with the oil/ solution until she & you are outside reliably Alerting near the forest edge, or even in your yard with buried hides, that’s fine. Many people don’t use real truffles until very late in training. We recommend it, when possible, because of VOC differences and also some dog’s alert behaviors change when dealing with real truffles vs odor in a container.

But a ways off still. You’ll be fine.

A very long winded answer, for “good decision”.