BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A Kentucky business owner is selling her goods all over the country, thanks to her four-legged partner.

What You Need To Know

  • Margaret Townsend operates her own truffle farm, which she harvests with the help of her dog, Luca

  • After the spores are harvested, Townsend ships them to chefs across the country

  • Townsend makes her own specialties such as truffle whisky, truffle ice cream, and truffle butter

  • Townsend says she can often tell what truffles Luca has found just by their smell

Margaret Townsend spends her days growing her own Périgord truffles. At $90 an ounce, the truffles are a high-priced commodity.

After the spores are harvested, Townsend ships them to chefs across the country.

“I’ll ship the truffles the same day to my broker, he’ll get it by about 2:00 p.m., and he can have that to his chefs potentially by dinner,” Townsend said.

Townsend also makes her own specialties, such as truffle whiskey and her truffle butter, to give herself a taste of her delicious truffles.

But she doesn’t do the work alone. Townsend can only complete this process with her companion, Luca, her dog, who has a strong nose for hunting truffles.

“If you watch him, you’ll see his nose working, you’ll hear his nose working,” Townsend explained.

After training him during his puppy days, the dynamic duo has been hunting together for years and go out on Townsend’s truffle farm every other day.

“It’s fun for him and it’s fun for me. It’s just a really special bond,” Townsend shared.

Some finds are better than others. She finds small and big indigenous and Périgord truffles on her farm. But often, Luca’s nose leads Townsend to the jackpot.

And once Luca finds it, Townsend digs with her knife, and as she is digging, she can recognize which type of truffle she finds, sometimes, just by the smell of the ground.

Townsend said, “With the indigenous ones, it’s more like a green onion and garlic. With the Périgord, it’s like a chocolate.”

And after about an hour of hunting, she takes her beloved indigenous and Périgord truffles inside for a wash; then sends them out for her loyal truffle-eating customers.

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