More truffle news

It's snowing again today in Tehachapi so no one's in the mood to plant. The good news is that the 450 trees in the ground look to be recovering from the shock of planting and are doing well and showing new growth.

Rather than plant trees or do my taxes (researching farm profit and loss for those interested), I Googled "truffle cultivation" and found a few more stories on truffle farming in the U.S.:

Click here for an article about Franklin Garland of Garland Truffles in North Carolina and Bob Pasarelli, a North Carolina chef, and their successes with truffle cultivation in North Carolina.

I also found a new truffle company, Truffle Cultivation, Inc., who are based out of Oregon and purport to have a sales office in France. Interesting to this attorney-farmer is the fact that the end of their website presentation states why they chose the corporate structure they did. Kind of funny if you ask me. They don't list pricing, products, or scientific information so I'm not sure what to make of them. I didn't find them in an online search of the Oregon Department of Corporations so if you're interested in them, be sure to check them out.

While at the Oregon Department of Corporations I did happen to search for corporations with the word "truffle" in their name. Here is the link to the list of 29 such names!!! Some appear to deal with those other kinds of truffles (the sweet ones), but several appear to be farms. I'll check into them and get back to you.

I found that kind of interesting, 'cause I'm kind of geeky that way, so I went over to the North Carolina Secretary of State's Corporations page and found these seven truffle-related businesses - all located in North Carolina. Interestingly enough, it shows that Garland Truffles, the above-referenced media darling of the North Carolnia truffle world, has a suspended corporate status as of today's date. This may mean nothing but is something those of you doing business with them should know and clarify who you are sending money to because I don't know about North Carolina, but it's sometimes illegal in California to do business with a knowingly suspended corporation.

Of course, no search would be complete without checking out my home state, California. I only found three "truffle" corporations here (probably because of our high corporate taxes...). Here is the link. Nope, we're not incorporated yet because, well, we don't have any business to worry about until we actually find that legendary black gold. One pound should just about cover the annual fees...

You can do these searches in your own state by going to the Secretary of State/Department of Corporations page and doing a search for businesses with the words "truffle", "truffiere", or whatever turns you on in them.

Back to those farm taxes...

How we got the idea to cultivate expensive mushrooms

It all started a few years back when my mom, Diana, was looking for real estate in Kern County where she could raise her menagerie of animals on what would one day become Windswept Ranch. She and husband David somehow got the idea that they might invest in some real estate wherein they could both raise exotic animals and grow hoity toity mushrooms, a natural combination. Unfortunately, such an estate was not available in the desired price range so they settled for just being exotic animal ranchers in the town of Twin Oaks, California.

Flash forward six years to when I, Kassandra the daughter, decided people in southern California were going crazy and paying too much for real estate and so decided to cash out my vast 1/2 acre mobile home/house hybrid and flee to Kern County to start a new life. I moved to a ranchette off the power grid on 6 acres just outside the small mountain town of Tehachapi , California.

Soon enough the lot next door to my house came up for sale and, greedy for solitude and mountain views like this:

I bought an additional 3.5 acres.

While contemplating what to do with the new acreage, my mother remembered her dreams (hallucinations?) of becoming a truffiere and our plan was hatched: We would form a dynamic mother-daughter duo and become the Truffle Queens of Tehachapi.

With the decision made and the land in hand, we of course turned to the internet for all our truffle growing needs. That's where we found Dr. Charles Lefevre at New World Truffieres who had no problem convincing us that two brown thumbs should most certainly invest thousands of dollars in a truffle farm. We promptly ordered 600 trees infused with the French black truffle fungus spore.

Now it's January and truffle planting season is upon us. Of course, the one trait common to this mother-daughter duo is procrastination. Just as soon as we return from the Oregon Truffle Festival this weekend, where we intend to learn everything we need to know about growing truffles (and taste our first truffles), we'll get started on the farming aspect. Really, we mean it!

In the meantime, my pig Hogitha is on guard, watching over the future truffiere: