Only two more weeks of the PSU market. I am well stocked of most food for a few months, but I do not have enough cheese. This is a 1.7 pound wheel of goat and sheep from Monteille.

Big black truffles that are very fragrant.

At the Ale Festival.

Potatoes, squash, bok choy, wild spinach, and scallions are what is presently available at Peoples. Also some tasty mushrooms: black trumpet, yellowfoot, and hedgehog. I have a glut of eggs so tonight I’ll make a mushroom quiche.

Yesterday at the Hollywood Farmers Market I bought some very ripe Oregon black truffles. Last year truffles were going for $20 – $40 per ounce at the farmers markets, a really crazy price. This year, possibly due to the economy, though I hope not, the truffle sellers have lowered their prices to something reasonable. Bittersweet farms was selling them for $8 an ounce, and the mushroom stand at the Hollywood market had them for $7 an ounce, or as the guy said, ‘a quarter a gram’. For that price the amount of truffle on my omelette was $3. The other thing that turns people off at these high prices is that they expect the concentration of flavor that they’ve tasted in ‘truffle infused oil’, not realizing that this is a totally synthetic product, akin to a Dorito. Compared to the oils the actual truffle has a fairly low key flavor. It’s also difficult to find ripe truffles as the truffle purveyors have been digging them up willy nilly whenever they can find them, regardless of ripeness. It’s necessary to smell each individual truffle to test.