The wordcount of The Truffle Book (see column on the right) has just ratcheted up a few hundred words. I’m a little over a third of the way to my target word-count of 40,000 carefully chosen and finely honed words. Words that can then go to a suitable editor for a second opinion.
A relationship with water
Someone threw a switch on or soon after January 12th. The weather stopped being cool and wet and started being warm and dry. And as usual, things started going wrong with our irrigation set-up. Nothing new there: I have a long relationship with failing pumps, wells that silt up, pipes that block, and springs that dry up. Over the years, an observer might have reported me apparently playing a giant black plastic Alpenhorn in an attempt to unblock it, scrabbling face down in a muddy spring trying to improve its flow, or trying to clear airlocks in a black plastic pipe that has boiled the water inside it.
New site, new year
Welcome to the new On The Farm. The old iBlog site has been archived, and all the entries copied over into a new Tinderbox site (apart from a few pictures – they’ll follow). I’ve even played around with the blog templates and customised things a bit. There’s a fairly steep learning curve with Tinderbox, but that goes with the extra power that I wanted, and apart from maintaining this blog, it may also be useful a tool for organising the research for my books.
One consequence of this change is that I’m about to kiss goodbye to many of my page hits. I changed to the wonderful Statcounter a week or two ago (thanks to a tip on the Freeway discussion list), and I’m revelling in the information it lets me see about all my visitors. Not that I’m overwhelmed by the volume of hits or anything, but it is interesting to see how many referrals I get from search engines, and what searches lead you to me.
The Tinderbox On The Farm has a different page structure to the iBlog site, and so a lot of those referrals are going to bounce – or at least they will until the search engines catch up.
In the meantime, I hope you like the new look and structure. Let me know what you think of the changes (if you know what the old site looked like).
Kung hei fat choy – happy (Chinese) new year
Truffle with shark fin? Some cultural borders should perhaps remain uncrossed…
From the Malaysia Star:
“Breaking away from the usual tried-and-tested recipes, Chef Chan is set to rule the roost in the forthcoming Rooster Year with his novel offerings. His Braised Truffle Broth with Shark’s Fin, Scallops and Foie Gras is certainly worth crowing over. The tantalising aroma of truffle emanating from this piece de resistance brought our idle chatter to a halt. The musky flavour of this highly prized fungus blended splendidly with the velvety smoothness of foie gras, while the strands of shark’s fin and diced fresh scallops provided a nice contrast in texture. The finely chopped Chinese celery tossed in helped to alleviate the overly rich taste.”
Yes. A novel use for truffle and duck liver. In a Chinese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Sounds like fun. And a new market!
Merry Christmas
Imagine a Noddy Holder sort of noise… Christmas down here. Drizzle. Cool. Turkey in the oven, family on the way over. Much preparation to be done. iPod shuffling through all sorts of Xmas music, from Stax/Chess Christmas to Musica Antiqua. Not much blogging to be done today. Just eating and drinking. I hope.
Compliments of the season to anyone who pops by. Drinks on me.
Pip pip!
A review in due course
Brian Wilson played Christchurch. I was there, and it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to a few). An amazing night, one that several of the good burghers of Christchurch assure me will pass into the local collective memory (along with a 70s Santana concert, apparently).
Let It Rot
Conspicuous consumption knows no bounds. You persuade some of your clients to donate a few quid for a charity auction, then buy a rather large truffle (see Dinosaur Dung entry), and invite journalists to come and have a sniff. £28,000 worth of Tuber magnatum. Ready to eat. Limited shelf life. So you lock it in a safe and go on holiday. The words “daft” and “bugger” spring unbidden to my mind.
It proves only one thing. Chefs know less about truffle than they care to admit, and growers outside France and Italy have a lot of educating to do. I want chefs to buy my truffles (when I’ve got some) because their customers will want a superb gourmet experience. The restaurateurs have to justify the cost of the truffle when they plate the meals, and the customer has to feel they’re getting value for money. If the best they can achieve is letting the things rot, then my job is going to be a lot harder.
Daft bugger.
The truffle burger
Somebody wanted to know about favourite fast foods: I nominated a truffle burger. There is, of course, a restaurant that offers one. In New York. $50 a pop. I want to be his supplier.
Plug me in, unplug me, give me speed
Fast internet arrives at the farm, as does a wireless network. But nothing’s ever easy, is it?
Dinosaur dung
It is a truth universally acknowledged (my daughter’s watching Pride & Prejudice on her iBook as I write) that when a mainstream journalist tackles truffles, he (or she) will spout bollocks. Today’s ration comes from The Times. (Incidentally, I checked the use of italics for The Times, and discovered that they have their style guide online. Marvellous!)