Try explaining trading zebra for truffle farm interest to your tax man...

We went to get our taxes done last night. It was my first year having a "farm loss" and the ever-patient CPA was quite confused as I explained that I traded 1.5 zebras for my mother's interest in the truffle farm. I am fairly certain it was his first farm expense statement combing both zebras and truffles in the same return. Then again, I'm sure it was his first return with either a zebra or a truffle involved. We did the trade so as not to have so many of our investments intertwined now that I'm married, and have a baby and all that good stuff that has happened since the trees arrived.

In other news, a friend in Texas was kind enough to send me a link to THIS GREAT ARTICLE by Peter Alsop on truffle farming in the U.S. It came out this weekend on Salon.com. I had never heard of the magazine before, but the article is extremely well-written so go check it out.

Success and possible truffle-farming nuns

So I heard a rumor that someone who bought truffle-infused hazelnut trees from New World Truffieres (same place we got ours) found their first truffle in their farm just east of Sacramento, California this year. The trees are five year old hazelnuts and I think they have 50 trees. I'm not sure how the quality of the truffle is, who found it, or how, but it's good to know the spore survived.

I also heard the Norbertine Sisters and the Bethlehem Convent here in Tehachapi may soon be receiving a gift in the form of some truffle trees. Seems we've started a trend...