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.