Reply To: Chris (access until November 15, 2014)

[Alana McGee]

We always love more videos! Glad you have liked it, and yes it has been great fun to watch you guys progress.

The registration for the next classes at Fenzi isn’t open yet (and have’t heard back yet)- but remember you’re going to want to get the stand alone material at FE520 too as it covers a lot of the transitioning.

And we have a lot of other material on truffles themselves we plan on posting on the forums here, it’s just about finding time. All of that should be on the fenzi forums too when you take that class.

As for T. mel. Right now we don’t as it isn’t in season yet, but we will have access to fresh and frozen and likely locally USA grown T.mel during the season, so can get you some.

Also you shouldn’t be practicing on orchards that produce until you are ready for a few reasons, one being that you don’t want Daisy to walk past a truffle, smell it and not alert. If that happens what you have just done is reinforced that that behavior is acceptable. Not to say she would do that, but on an orchard that is producing odor is much denser and can be confusing- we discuss a bunch of aspects on how to handle things like that in the FE530

We know it is REALLY tempting to do so (and at some point you do have to make that leap), but in the long run it is way better, and you will avoid future issues if you work on the transitional stuff before you try to locate in producing orchards or forests. We want you and Daisy to find EVERY SINGLE truffle you come across, not just some of them- and for Orchard work, this is actually critical as there is a more of a monetary aspect to it.

Orchard work is just a bit different too as it can be easier in some aspects and a lot harder and frustrating in others, not to mention you are also dealing with specifics of land owners and a whole host of other things and different kinds of distractions than in the forest.

Do you think you want to work on Orchards eventually? Because if so in the later courses we should tailor your experience to that or mention other key aspects as Orchard work and forest work, while similar and use the same skills, are approached differently.

Orchard owners (Esp. or European species) often are pretty darn reserved, for good reason so it can be difficult to break into that- but you can always just ask them. Often they have had good and bad experiences with various dog teams already so you sometimes are fighting a headwind. If you are interested in working on orchards We also are looking for teams in your area to eventually handle the demand there, so that is an option as well and we have all the legal mumble jumbo, best practices etc and experience of working on them to help support teams like yourself who are interested and want to work in those places. just a thought 🙂

The pecan orchard scene in general is ripe to explode (as in they need dogs) A little bit about it is educating farmers like you said, many probably don’t even know they have a possibility of truffles- and right now those that do- very few have dogs. Most pecan growers throw them away! Not realizing there is a culinary marketplace for them. We are working on changing that and there are some consortiums in the south working on it too, but it takes a while. BUT it does mean you are at the foundation of what will be a more robust industry. It’s just a matter of time 🙂