Keeping them down on the Farm

Monday, as a class, we went to a farmers market in West Hollywood. Anyone who has been to a farmer's market knows that there are good vendors and not so good vendors. So our assignment was to talk to the vendors and ask questions about how they raised their food. How they brought it to market and ways to use the food they were selling.

Really interesting was a mushroom vendor. His card says LA FungHi. He claimed to be a certified master chef, the highest order in chef-dom. Since there are only about 50 in the US, I believe he may have been smoking some of those mushrooms. But, I took his card and purchased a few mushrooms. He also had black truffles. But at $57 an ounce, that's an ounce, not a pound, I declined to purchase. But I did learn, because I asked, that when you buy a truffle, cut it half, put one half in dried rice to control the moisture and the other half in olive oil. You now have truffle oil that if stored properly, is good for about 6 months. You can also store them next to eggs. The shell, being semi-permeable, absorbs the truffle scent and you will have terrific tasting eggs.

All in all, a fun day was had down on the farm.