NEWS
HANDS FULL OF RIPE
OREGON TRUFFLES
INAUGURAL TRUFFLE DOG
CHAMPIONSHIP WOOFS INTO
LIFE THIS JANUARY
It may look like a Labradoodle, but the lagotto Romagnolo is actually an ancient
dog breed, carefully selected and bred for its ability to sniff out truffles. Though
rare, a handful of lagottos live in Eugene, and now they and other breeds have a
chance to strut their stuff. For the first time ever, the Oregon Truffle Festival is
holding The Joriad North American Truffle Dog Championship, a sporting event
for dog lovers and truffle fans alike.
The Joriad, an event unique to the Oregon Truffle Festival, is named for Or-
egon’s state soil, Jory, which provides favorable conditions in which truffles can
grow. “It’s a celebration of Oregon at its very roots,” says Charles Lefevre, co-
founder of the Oregon Truffle Festival, which is in its 10th year.
The competition will take place over two days, starting with qualifying trials
open to nonprofessional truffle dogs of all breeds at the Oregon Horse Center. Dogs
will sniff out truffle-scented targets, and the top 10 competitors will move on to the
second day of the championship, when truffle dogs will scour the forests in a field
trial.
PHOTO COURTESY: DAVID BARAJAS
In some ways, truffle dogs have helped boost the reputation of Oregon truffles,
according to Lefevre. The festival promotes truffle dogs because they can only find
truffles when they are ripe and releasing an aroma. This means that truffles found by
dogs are in prime condition — the alternative method is raking the ground, which
results in gathering both ripe and unripe truffles.
“The dogs’ primary role is not to find the truffles, but to choose which truffles
are ready to harvest,” Lefevre says. “As a result of our using dogs, and chefs being
impressed by the results, the price of Oregon truffles has gone from $100 per pound
to $600 per pound for dog-hunted truffles over the life of the festival. Raked truffles
bring in about $200 per pound.”
Any dog breed has the potential to become a truffle-hunting dog, Lefevre says,
although some are better than others. The festival has long provided truffle-hunting
classes for dogs, and Lefevre says that one year a pudgy miniature dachshund was the
star performer. Lefevre’s dog, a chocolate lagotto Romagnolo named Dante, learned
to find truffles when he was only 10 weeks old by getting treats for sniffing out truffle
oil-scented objects in Lafevre’s backyard.
Lefevre says around 35 dogs will compete this year, and there’s still time to regis-
ter your greenhorn truffle dog at oregontrufflefestival.com. The qualifying competi-
tion on Wednesday, Jan. 21, is open to the public at the Oregon Horse Center, 90751
Prairie Road; tickets are $15 and can be purchased online or at the door.
Limited tickets are available for The Joriad Awards Gala and Dinner on Jan. 22; see
the festival’s website for more information. — Amy Schneider
• Silly climate-change deniers still get an audience in The
Register-Guard letters section, preaching misinformation.
We’re reminded of letters that used to run in newspapers
saying beating kids is a good idea. Spare the rod, etc. Or letters
saying a woman’s place is in the home. Time to move on to
more useful discussions.
• Makes us proud to read McKenzie Funk’s article “The
• We’ve ranted against sprawl for decades
and we will likely continue to do so ad nauseam.
We are not against growth, per se. People have
to live somewhere, and our population is
growing for a number of reasons, mostly sex.
But we see no reason to encourage growth (or
sex) to line the pockets of land speculators and
shoddy developers. As City Councilor Betty
Taylor asks, “Who profits from these plans?”
We’d rather see quality of life be our community
priority instead of taxpayer-subsidized growth.
Highly livable Portland has a much higher
population density than Eugene, and yet we are
preparing to expand our urban growth boundary
once again, this time gobbling precious prime
farmland. If we keep having sex, the fruits and
vegetables of our loins will need that farmland.
That grow-or-die mentality permeates UO as
well. Absurd Ducks sports extravagance is
often excused by saying it attracts more
students. The lavish Erb Memorial Union
renovation is intended to do the same, but add
the $50-million cost to student debt. A better
way to recruit better students would be to offer
exceptional academics at a reasonable cost.
8
January 8, 2015 • eugeneweekly.com
Wreck of the Kulluk,” the cover story in the Jan. 4 New York
Times magazine section. A nationally known environmental
writer, Funk grew up in Eugene, graduating from South Eugene
High School. He lays out, sometimes in excruciating detail,
how Shell Oil tried to drill in the Beaufort Sea but lost out to
incompetence, the hostile Arctic environment and the
economics of oil. This is a cautionary tale for Oregonians facing
the transport of oil, gas and coal across
this state.
• Some Duck fluff left over from
the Rose Bowl: Oregon’s much-loved
Marcus Mariota and New York’s much-
loved Mario Cuomo sharing photos on
the front page of The New York Times.
The language against sexual
violence, “No Means No,” haplessly
sharing the scene after a great display
of athletic violence. Some agreement
with Cardale Jones, the Ohio State
quarterback who tweeted: “Why
should we have to go to class if we
came here to play football, we ain’t
come to play school classes are
pointless.” A certain pleasure that
Alabama lost, even with $7 million-a-
year Coach Nick Saban, whose alums
recently bought him a $3-million
house. And a suggestion: If you like to
drive and shop at a quiet time, try 5:30
pm Monday, Jan. 12, when the Ducks
are playing Ohio State in Dallas for the
national championship.