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I would have just gone with shiitakes

Mr. Stewart had grown tired of raising swine; 26 years with pigs is a very long time. “I thought I’d try something different,” he said in an interview this week. “Fungus seemed like a real challenge.”

“I would have just gone with shiitakes,” added his wife, Kathi. Much easier, those ones; shiitake mushrooms grow exposed on logs, in barns.

For their part, Périgord black truffles require an alkaline soil. This meant Mr. Stewart had to spread 20 tonnes of lime over every acre in his hazel grove, because his land is naturally acidic. And since truffles never appear above ground, finding them is nearly impossible without the help of animals; specifically, beasts blessed with super-sensitive olfactory glands.

Such as pigs. But the Stewarts no longer have any of those. It’s just as well. Pigs would sooner devour a Périgord than point a cloven hoof at one. The smell reminds a sow of boar saliva, apparently; snatching a truffle from a female pig in heat is just asking for trouble.

The Stewarts turned instead to expert truffle dogs. The first discovery came March 8; the second and third, a few weeks later. The truffles looked and smelled like Périgords. Coal black, dense and fragrant. Were these real-deal, genuine Tuber melanosporum? Or some lower form of fungus, a fool’s odiferous black gold?

Truffle aficionados recalled that six years ago, a couple on Vancouver Island claimed to have cultivated “several kilograms” of precious Périgords. A Canadian first, or so the couple advertised. It’s alleged the couple’s claims were never independently verified.