The days are short, the breeze bites, snow sprinkles our peaks and wild waves lash our shores. But beneath the chill is the buzz of a community excited by the delicacies and adventures a Tasmanian winter brings.

The season offers fanciers of food an abundance of discoveries, from perfumed fungi to primitive, long-table dining. Connect with the boutique producers and get cosy with some of this state’s finest fare that is at its best in the depths of the darkest months.

Let’s start with our boots in the dirt. French culinary hero Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin proclaimed black truffles “the diamond of the kitchen” and with each fungi’s delicate construction and bewitching effect, the title is easily understood.

Truffles grow at the roots of oak trees and ripen under blankets of frost. Tour Truffles of Tasmania’s sprawling farm near the Great Western Tiers, where you can hunt for rare, Perigord truffles with a hound at your side.

To celebrate these precious fungi, Stillwater restaurant in Launceston hosts an annual Truffle and Pinot Degustation Dinner, and the Tasmanian Butter Co is adding fresh shavings to its cultured butter, which will be exclusively sold at the Launceston Harvest Market and Hobart’s Farm Gate Market.

The markets – held on Saturday and Sunday respectively – are a must for your wintry epicurean expedition. A host of small-scale, artisan producers set up stalls amid rain, hail, shine and Antarctic blasts to sell their wares and share their story.

In Launceston, the folks at Mount Gnomon Farm will tell you cheese from the nearby fromage factory often feeds their herd of free-range pigs on land beside Bass Strait. Ritual Coffee Tasmania can whip up a flat white in between explaining their locally roasted brew. And Sandy the baker may whisper just how he achieves the perfect sourdough.

In Hobart, after the brass bell rings at 8.30am, you’re welcome to mingle with purveyors of ethically sourced meat, healthy treats, vegetables and teas.

Continue your foraging at one of Tassie’s fine cooking schools, which focus on artisanal fare simply prepared and enjoyed with good company. Rodney Dunn’s Agrarian Kitchen mixes a provincial approach with contemporary, sustainable technique in a restored 19th-century schoolhouse. Gather your ingredients from the organic garden and cook up a seasonal storm.

In the relaxed kitchen of convict-built Red Feather Inn you’ll learn how to cure bacon and make pasta from scratch. Red Feather is nestled on the edge of the Meander Valley, a region dotted with dairy herds responsible for much of Tasmania’s glorious milk.

Bruny Island Cheese Co is a sweet addition to any epicurean tour of Tasmania. The fromagerie, on Bruny Island in the magnificent D’Entrecastreaux Channel, south of Hobart, produces an interesting collection of traditional cheeses.

Bruny Island Cheese Co has a cellar door in the Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, but if you do make the voyage to the island, throw in some Get Shucked oysters and local ale and find a spot on a secluded beach with your picnic rug.

Bundling everything up and whacking it on a melamine plate beside a fire drum is the Dark Mofo Winter Feast. Held over two weekends in June, this festival is a hedonist’s dream. Graze on seductive comfort food from stalls fronting a sprawling single candlelit table on Hobart’s waterfront. Or wrap your mittens around mulled wine while wandering performers entertain.

So, take your appetite to gobehindthescenery.com.au and start dreaming of that cosy, delicious adventure to Tasmania.

Curious? To get amongst it and experience all Tassie has to offer this winter, start your story here.