b.Passion business IV - Black Périgord Truffles (as a)

The last parts are here:   b.Passion business III - Bird's nest (as a) and b.Passion business II - 冬虫草

Crying is a good business. It allows me to release tension and sadness stored unhealthily in my system. It clears my mind. It focuses my energy. It brings new nourishment to my body. It frees myself from shackles of history. A recent discussion has killed my idea about being a trader in 冬虫草,  the Nepali has expressed that he wants a bigger cut in the business. Sigh ... Such greediness will not go well with my business. I stopped him dead in his track.

Now, I have no choice but to search for cordyceps within my land. If I find it great, else it is still alright. It still falls within the failed business idea within passion business II. Since ginseng farming is my real McCoy for passion business II. I am still on track.

As all my doors are closed for all my lovely fungi, I was sad for a while.

Just yesterday, my cutey white agent just contacted me and she said she has a cheap and nice truffle grove for sale. She said that it fruits black Périgord truffles. I swallowed hard, hard, hard. I can hear my heart beats in my ears. She further suggested that the truffle grove is currently very young, about 2 years old. No yet fruiting. But, the owners are not sure if the truffles will fruit. She said that samples of the root sytem has already been sent to the university for test and confirmed to be the genre of the famous black Périgord truffles. A modest estimate is it can produce about 50 kilograms per acre. Each kilogram is worth wholesale $2,000, that would give about $100,000 per acre per year. Depending on how many acres I crave. She will cut out my share of it. Maintenance is easy and she will buy me a gifted Lagotto Romagnolo dog to hunt truffles. She is such hot darling in sale. She knows I am a cheapo Asian who craves freebies. This bad habit is going to kill me at the end.

Sigh ... She really wants to go for the kill. Just 10 acres will have easily provide sale volume of up to $1m. Really attractive. 

White Truffles

The "white truffle" or "Alba madonna" (Tuber magnatum) comes from Italy, Croatia and France. Growing symbiotically with oak, hazel, poplar and beech and fruiting in autumn, they can reach 12 cm diameter and 500 g, though are usually much smaller. The flesh is pale cream or brown with white marbling. Italian white truffles are very highly esteemed and are the most valuable on the market: The white truffle market in Alba is busiest in the months of October and November when the Fiera del Tartufo (truffle fair) takes place. In 2001, the Tuber magnatum truffles sold for between 1000–2200 USD per pound (2000–4500 USD per kg); as of 2009 they were being sold at 14,203.50 USD per kilogram. Giancarlo Zigante and his dog Diana found one of the largest truffles in the world near Buje, Croatia. The truffle weighed 1.31 kilograms (2 lb 14 oz) and has entered the Guinness Book of Records. The record price paid for a single white truffle was set in 2007, when Macau casino owner Stanley Ho paid 330,000 USD (£165,000) for a specimen weighing 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb), discovered by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco. One of the largest truffles found in decades, it was unearthed near Pisa, Italy and sold at an auction held simultaneously in Macau, Hong Kong and Florence. This record was then matched in 2010 when Ho again paid 330,000 USD for a pair of white truffles, including one weighing nearly a kilogram. The Tuber magnatum pico white truffle is found mostly in northern and central Italy, while the Tuber borchii, or whitish truffle, is found in Tuscany, Abruzzo, Romagna, Umbria, the Marche and Molise. Neither of these is as aromatic as those from Piedmont, although those from Città di Castello come quite close.

Black Truffles

The black truffle or black Périgord truffle (Tuber melanosporum), the second-most commercially valuable species, is named after the Périgord region in France and grows with oak and hazelnut trees. Black truffles are harvested in late autumn and winter.

Harvest

Truffles are the “fruit” of fungi that live in mutually beneficial symbioses with the roots of host trees. The truffle fungus explores the soil for water and mineral nutrients, which it passes along to the tree. In exchange, the tree provides sugars produced through photosynthesis to the fungus. The tree and the fungus depend on one another, but there are many tree species that can serve as hosts for the truffles, and many fungi that can fulfill the same role for the tree. In nature, these fungi compete for space on the host tree’s root system. This competition limits truffle production, and if conditions are poor, other fungi can displace the truffle fungus from the root system.

Truffles grow in association with the roots of European Oak or Hazelnut trees. Although they are fungi (mushrooms) they never poke their heads above ground and so must advertise their presence by their smell, which wafts up from their location, 2 to 10 inches underground. Humans, of course, do not have a strong sense of smell, so dogs are used to locate the truffles. The dogs as well need to go through a multi year training process, hunting sample truffles placed further away as training progresses.

Conclusion

This warrants a new number be given to this new passion business, namely, Passion Business IV.

After every crying, there is always hope. Mother Nature rewards those that are humble and kind. After this deal, I am going to ask the white agent to buzz off. She is sucking me dry.

Project Progress:
(1)   Meetings with the grove owners are scheduled and due diligence would be made.