Lost Truffle Farm Remembered

From KXAN, November 26, 2008...

In 1989, Francois Picart was on the verge of making Dripping Springs history. Picart had worked for a decade to create several orchards of oak and hazelnut trees. He nurtured the trees through freeze and drought. He fought off insects and small mammals. Why, you ask, would he do that? He would do that because in France, the roots of such trees do some nurturing of their own. They nurture truffles, those rare black fungi that chefs and connoisseurs so treasure for their taste and aroma. The truffles can bring hundreds of dollars per pound, thus, their nickname: Black diamonds.

But why Dripping Springs? Well, it turns out that the climate, geology and topography of the Central Texas hill country is quite similar to the truffle regions of France and Picart took a notion to set up shop there. He wanted to domesticate and farm what in his home country, grows wild.

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Also see On the trail of the Lost Truffle Farm