A little black lump of fungus

Yes, one of those days. Too much to do, to think about and too many threads running through my brain. it was also a nice day to read other blogs and post on them. It seems everyday I check out a new link and find a new favorite. Blogging has really made a lot of people into writers. I wasn't very much of a writer until I grudgingly accepted emailing back in the late 90's. I still am not and I seem to be losing command of English as I speak and think more and more French. Sometimes I don't know the word in either language.
What did I do today? Woke at 7:30 and walked the dog, J Edgar, who rediscovered ice! This is his 2nd winter and last winter he was a little guy. Janet and I went into the Causse forest above Grange d'Ans to cut a scraggly juniper tree for Christmas. It was a nice outing a few kilometers away. It's such totally different country than here. The soil is red here and so is the sandstone. On the other side of the 704, the soil is grey and full of limestone rocks. The Causse itself is a limestone plateau with a thin layer of soil. The forest is composed mainly of scraggly oak trees that drive their roots deep into the rock. Because the soil is so poor, the oaks need help to get nutrients. They evolved a symbiotic relationship with a fungus which grows in the roots, the Black Truffle to accomplish this task. This area is one of the main zones for the black truffle and a lot of the privately owned areas are fenced and guarded.
A lot is still open and the truffle oaks are carefully watched by a few locals. The entire process, from finding them to the sale is a closely guarded history. There are a few markets in the area with a strict protocol and all sales are conducted privately in cash.
What an amazing lore of a small dirty black lump of fungus. If you haven't smelt one, you will never know what it is all about. To go into the little green grocer in Thenon at Christmas and open the door and be engulfed in the odor of truffles for sale in a little basket is a real sensory experience. If you are lucky enough to have a fresh truffle, you only need to put it in a bowl of fresh eggs over night to flavor the entire batch of eggs. A few slivers in a pate or terrine will change the entire flavor. How do they taste? How can you describe something that tastes like dirt would taste if it was delicious? Perhaps that is why only a little bit is needed and the imagination does the reat.
I have friends who trained their border collie to hunt truffles. In the old days, the peasants used pigs, but you would have to fight the pig for the truffle. There is a technique that involves going into the forest in the morning, when the suns rays are at a slant and watching carefully for the swarming of a small flying insect. The Truffle Fly. If you look carefully, you might see them swarming at the base of a tree, where they will burrow into the ground to lay their eggs in a truffle they have located by special fly powers!
My friends who have the border collie, have a business selling oaks and hazelnut trees which have been inoculated with truffle spores. This has been tried for many years but it takes exactly the right soil and climate. If you are successful, it might take 7 years to see the results. Supposedly in the USA, in Northern Texas and Oregon State, there is soil with the right chemistry and the climate is friendly enough. There is a group of researchers trying to accomplish this feat buut there are so many unknown and variables. So far, I have not heard of any one having any luck.
Here, there are many plantations of little oaks and hazelnuts, carefully fenced off as as investment in the future!