Not the chocolates but the fungi. Why so much $$$? Why can’t you grow them and reduce the cost?
They can and do
Because you have to hire a pig to go digging for the stuff otherwise and quite frankly who wants to go to all that trouble?
You can’t cultivate them; people have tried.
Why are they expensive? Simple supply and demand. From this site:
Why can’t we grow them and make off like bandits? Apparently it’s not that simple. From this site:
In short: a lot of people want 'em, but they’re rare. Until one of those conditions (the supply or the demand) changes, they’ll stay expensive, ya dig?
But why can’t they? Is this like the diamond thing? That they are artifically inflated and people think anything dug up by a dog (or pig --they tend to eat them dogs don’t) is better than a home grown?
Actually, people grow them, sort of. I’m not at all aknowledgeable on this topic, so don’t cite me on this, but the truffle only grows in very particular seetings. The soil must have some particular characteristics and the fungus is associated with specific species of trees (I don’t know if it’s a symbiotic relationship, some poster surely will know better).
So, people maintain such tree plantations in the areas where the truffle can grow. Then, they use trained dogs (or pigs) to find the fungi (which growth under the soil, hence can’t be spotted, in case you wouldn’t know). That’s apparently the closest you can achieve to “growing” truffles. However, I vaguely remember having read last year about some somewhat successful experiment to grow truffles in a more convenient way.
By the way, this would apply only to the real truffle. There are several similar and much more common fungi which are sometimes sold as “truffles” and are way cheaper. However, they don’t have the same gustative qualities, by a long shot.
By the way, AFAIK, many (most?) species of mushrooms, even more common than the truffle, can’t be cultivated. I don’t know why, but surely some poster familiar with botanics will be able to enlighten us.