The location of our latest garden truffles report was a little surprising. It came from Chiswick, in west London, not too far from the Great West Road (A4) and River Thames. The garden is with 6 miles of the notional “centre of London” at Charing Cross, the point from which distances from London are measured.
Five small summer truffles were found under a beech tree estimated to be over 100 years old while the house owner was clearing a bed of cyclamen. As would be expected at this time of year, they were unripe, but the finder was not deterred and was going to truffle some eggs and have them scrambled.
The garden sits on London Clay, so is not really the prime truffle territory of chalk or limestone. However, this is not the only London truffle find we are aware of. Our extensive database of truffle finds has 7 records for Greater London. Among the more notable are an undated one for Covent Garden and a 2018 find in a garden in East Dulwich, about 4 miles south-east of Charing Cross. The finder, an ex-Michelin star chef, watched a squirrel digging by his decking and then went to see what it had been doing. He filmed this and put it on Instagram here.
