If our British friend has some optimistic views on truffle yields, so does Charles Lefevre of New World Truffieres, in Eugene, Oregon. According to Forbes, he’s dreaming of a white (Italian white) Christmas:

His other goal is to cultivate Italian white truffles–a feat he says no one in the world has yet accomplished. He has inoculated seedlings with Italian white truffle and kept the resulting mycorrhizae alive for three years, so far. “If you could cultivate Italian whites,” he says, “and if your trees managed to produce a hundred pounds per acre–which is common with French blacks–then at $2,000 a pound you’d make $200,000 per acre per year.”

Lefevre dreams on: “If you had 10 acres, you could work leisurely for maybe five weeks each winter and have a $2 million annual income.”

When truffle pigs fly.

Having met Charles, I think I can say that his tongue must have been firmly in his cheek. The Forbes article is worth a read, though.

The truffle business in Britain is hotting up. First there was Truffles UK, set up by Nigel Haddon-Paton and Adrian Cole to produce truffle-infected trees using technology licensed from New Zealand. Now there’s a young bloke called Paul Thomas who has been trying to raise money to set up truffieres using trees infected using technology he’s developed. He even took his quest to the BBC, who featured his business on Dragon’s Den a week or two ago.

The latest news is, apparently, that his deal has fallen through. His website suggests that:

Using 2,500 of our trees on a 5 hectare site, we should achieve a production in excess of 1000 kg per year. That represents an annual turnover in excess of £1 million.

In other words, 200kg of truffle per hectare. On every hectare. Optimistic would be a mild word to use to describe that yield. Perhaps that’s why the deal didn’t work out. In my experience of seeking funding for start-ups, you don’t dazzle your backers with promises of huge returns: nobody will believe you.

What do I think a reasonable yield might be? 20 to 40kg/hectare. That’s achievable, in our experience in NZ, and still gives you a good return. Good enough for me, anyway.

I’ve been working on my chapter about dogs. In browsing the web for pictures of truffle dogs, and especially the Italian breed called lagotto romagnolo, I came across this site. Grist to the mill: they look like a sort of poodle crossed with terrier. Not as charming as the incredibly charming Peg, but they won’t chase rabbits. An advantage when rabbits are everywhere.

Peg’s two next month, and I know that some time in the next few years we’ll have to start training her successor. Would a lagotto be good? I had dismissed the idea as being too convoluted and expensive when I clicked on this:

I daren’t let my daughter see this, or expensive dogs will be flying round the world.

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.

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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!

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!

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.

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.

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!)

It’s the holy grail of truffle production. Tuber magnatum, the Italian white truffle, the most expensive truffle on the planet, has wilfully resisted all efforts to cultivate it in plantations. Now an article by Elizabeth Luard in that British magazine institution, The Spectator, suggests that success is close at hand. You’ll need to register to read the article in the “Irregulars” section of this week’s issue (06/11/04), but it’s worth the effort, if only to read something in the relatively mainstream press that goes beyond the obvious caviar and champagne metaphors and isn’t afraid to use a few scientific terms. Thanks to Tony Vickery of the erstwhile enchiridion blog for drawing my attention to it.

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