Truffles Exposed!

The NY Times had an article on March 1st, Cultivating a Mystique by Jane Black, that was my first glimpse of the worlwide truffle market. Did you know:

- One truffle farm in Spain accounts for 15-25% of the global supply of ~35 tons a year?

- 80 to 90 percent of French truffles are now cultivated.

- New Zealand is a big player with about 100 new truffle farms in the last decade. It is home to the most productive truffle farm in the world, with $220,000 worth of truffles (wholesale) an acre.

- Primitive truffle farms began in France almost 150 years ago.

- All you need to make truffles are the right growing conditions, an oak forest, and some truffle spores to infect new saplings? Trees take about 8-10 years to mature before the first crop.

- Even at truffle farms, dogs are used to find truffles, and they are hand dug. This is necessary because the peak of a truffle's ripeness is relatively short.

- Look out for Chinese truffles, Tuber indicum, which look like black truffles, or Tuber melanosporum, but lack their signature aroma and flavor, and sell for a fraction of the price - I am not sure I believe the part about aroma and flavour, and I think this might be China bashing. Do any of you have any experience?

Eat as many truffles as you can. Cheat, and use truffles to get laid. Be critical of chefs that put truffle oil on everything.