Thanks to Emily Anderson for the feature in Country Life. A few snippets: "Snuffing out a tasty treat; Melissa Wassingham, spaniel Ela and labrador Sebedee hunt through the beech woods of the South Downs for fragrant black truffles." "I use a labrador because they are loyal, greedy and eager to please, but any working dog can be taught to hunt out ...

My name is Melissa Waddingham and I am a truffle hunter and wild mushroom picker. In the spring and autumn months I run mushroom forays, truffle hunts, talks, courses and throughout the year I provide truffle hound training days for your truffle hound to be.I also manage woodlands for the sustainable production of truffle. For more information rega...

Currently in France and been invited to hunt with Zebedee and Ela for Summer truffles by a local hunter and grower on his plantation and wild orchard, I feel honoured. Also organising some future foraging holidays abroad for truffle, mushrooms and other foraged goodies, exploring new territories to help extend my working season. I will keep you all...

I'm adopting this phrase as my tag line as I use it so frequently "Look for truffle, look for truffle" it's got a great ring to it puts a kick in the dogs step and always keeps me smiling!

So nice to get feed back from events, especially one like this:"Hey Melissa!Yeah it was absolutely brilliant, felt like I seen the gardens in a whole new perspective and everyone really enjoyed themselves and learned a lot, so thanks so much. "From Maya, seed collections assistant at Wakehurst PlaceNice, thank you

Come and see me this weekend at Wakehurst Place I will be doing a fungi talks an' walks.https://www.kew.org/visit-wakehurst/whats-on/bountiful-botanics-2016

I'm making plans to have a litter of pups with Ela, probably by early next year. I will be truffle hound training them for twelve months and then they will be ready for sale and rehoming to special interested individuals. If anyone would like to know more please contact me to discuss. Only apply if your a serious ethical forager working within good...

I'm looking to connect with British ex pats in the next month or two that live in France, Spain or Portugal that have truffle plantations or wild truffle orchards that need help at harvest time or for those that would like to consider woodland management for the sustainable harvest of T aestivum and T melansporum. If you are and you are not sure if...

Choiromyces meandriformes, often smooth yellow/white and brown however sometimes cracked and variable resembling warts! However with these tubular like ornamentations on the spores and large ascos it could not be anything else :-)It smells like a pear drop a very chemically one, not considered good to eat as it can cause gastro irritations but comm...

2 hrs and 39 min in: BBC RADIO MERSEYSIDE. Myself and Sophie Birrell from Lilly's Kitchen and Houndsounds.co.uk.BBC Link

My all time personal best, it was one truffle so tightly wrapped round an old stump I had to break it to get it out , 418g nearly half a kilo, sadly immature even at this size, gutted but still good for aroma infusions and training all my dogs this week. This picture isn't of the actual truffle, this was a smaller one at 141g.

A gentle reminder to all my fellow foragers, to remain above the law can I remind you as responsible foragers it is our sole responsibility to investigate the land and its restrictions before harvesting as many woodlands, countryside and beaches have areas of SSSI's (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) and local bylaws sometimes protecting the re...

Well what a fantastic fungi year it was last season. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my new clients that joined me last year and some reappearing from the year before and this year too, thank you all very much. It was a great year, abundant with all sorts of mushrooms and truffles. They were around till January maybe even Februar...

I now offer a service managing large areas of woodlands in suitable areas for the sustainable production of wild truffle, a new concept for this country and abroad so I am told. An idea that I have been studying for some time now and with my forestry background coupled with my knowledge of truffle it proves to be a concept which could be very inter...

A note of caution to all truffle hunters and their dogs. LUNG WORM can be transmitted via unwashed truffles to your truffle hounds because slugs are particularly partial to truffle too funnily enough, then leaving behind their contaminated slime. If your dogs are like mine and like feasting on unwashed half eaten/whole truffles whilst running round...

Check out the article here.

Nice find Ela, very proud of my little 10 month working Cocker Spaniel, she has only just worked out what to do in the woods and if this is how she is gong to work it will not be disappointing! Both dogs have been working extremely hard and delivered a grand total of 660 grams whilst out on our own in one day, they have been so fast working whilst ...

A true word spoken by Norman Porrett from the British Mycology Society, he points out a ridiculous gap in biological education,I notice this gap a lot on my forays when explaining the functions of fungi so many clients are enlightened and completely unaware of their ecology and the ways in which we combine our lives. and the importance of fungi pre...

Summer Newsletter 2013 Update on the year so far It has been a slow start this year as we all know, with most spring fungi at least a month to six weeks late. I have never seen bluebells in June or elderflowers in July and still finding remnants of wild garlic leaves and flowers, it's all a bit mad. However the appearance of Russulas have been earl...