An unusual discovery was made in the yard of a house in the eastern Finnish city of Joensuu: a large number of truffles were found in an old leaf compost.
About 50 truffles have been found so far amidst the decomposing leaves.
“There may be even more. I haven’t dug it all up”, says Heikki Eskelinen, the owner of the compost heap.
The discovery is one of the largest finds of truffles ever made in Finland. In July, more than 70 of the prized fungi were found in the flower bed of a summer cottage in Puumala.
Truffles are rarely found in Finland, as they are difficult to locate under the ground without a trained dog or pig.
Truffles are small and lumpy fungi, which live in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of trees.
Some species are the most expensive foodstuffs in the world, fetching prices in the thousands of euros per kilo.
Heikki Eskelinen andMaarit Sireni have not yet decided what to do with their truffle patch.
“If someone finds them interesting, I could give them to research. If not, I guess we’ll figure out a way to prepare them”, Eskelinen says.
