Tuber melanosporum in the news
Tuber melanosporum? Black P�rigords Truffles -- $600/pound truffles.
And some guy in Tennessee has figured out how to grow them.
A fun long article at
Gentleman's Quarterly:
Hillbilly Truffle
Were you to visualize an ideal existence, this might be it: Awaken a mile from Davy Crockett's birthplace, the sun rising over the Blue Ridge Mountains, handily visible from your back porch. Phone for a rare Lagotto Romagnolo truffle-hunting dog to be brought around in an ever available Lexus SUV. Stroll your backyard hazelnut orchard with the happy hound bounding beside you, him sniffing the soft earth for precious Tuber melanosporum, you gathering them up�hardly stressful, since they conveniently grow only inches beneath the ground. Rinse, put in Ziplocs, add rice to absorb moisture, and establish the price you'll charge, about $600 a pound, sometimes more. Try not to fret about the overhead. After all, we're talking bags and rice.
Of course, you must find somebody to buy your harvest, but that's no problem. "I thought the real hard part was going to be the selling," says Tom Michaels, thought to be the only man in America who earns a living selling black P�rigord truffles that he's cultivated himself. "They sell themselves."
His personal life isn't bad, either. Michaels's house, that of a divorced man devoid of domestic skills, looks at best like a college dorm room. "Besides being a slob, I'm not organized," he concedes, when I mention that most everything he owns is teetering in piles. On the occasions that his girlfriend, Vicki Blizzard, drives over from Knoxville, Tennessee, she finds it all just fine. "Tom's house is wonderful. He's got that backyard, that view. So what if it's not as pristine as mine. I'm comfortable there."
That's two treasures, a tolerant woman as well as a ready crop of black truffles, one of the most expensive edibles on earth. Long considered a mainstay of French haute cuisine, Tuber melanosporum, a.k.a. the black P�rigord truffle, has not always been rare, but it has always been prized.
A fun read -- his website is here:
Tennessee Truffle
Posted by DaveH at November 30, 2009 8:44 PM