By David Claridge

A giant discovery underground near Deloraine has given some joy in a time when things are not so joyous.

A record-breaking truffle found at Tasmanian Truffles weighed in at 910 grams.

Business owner, Anna Terry, was out on a regular walk with trainee truffle-hunting dog Poppy when they came across the monster.

‘I was out doing some training with one of the dogs. She has only been training for about six months,’ Anna said.

‘She scratched like she does when she finds a truffle. I got down on my hands and knees and usually I can see the sides of it or the bottom, but I couldn’t. It kept going!’

Anna explained what they could have done with it. ‘They only last two weeks, their shelf life, which was frustrating. Normally something of that size would go to Japan or Hong Kong as a novelty item, but with COVID-19 it wasn’t going to happen so we had to cut it up to sell it locally. It broke my heart a little bit to cut it up.’

Anna is optimistic of finding more large truffles in the future.

‘It’s very encouraging. Truffles are nearly 90 percent water, so it’s a really good indicator that we have some really nice soil conditions for that to grow. Not being stunted by clay.

‘You never know what you are going to get under the ground. It’s a mystery.’