Natural treasures: Beneath the ground, at a depth of 12 inches, grow mushrooms called 'white truffles', which can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yes, like diamonds.
These mushrooms are usually sold in luxury restaurants in Italy, and the price of the classic - simple - mushroom ranges from $2,600 to $5,000 per kilogram.
But these mushrooms may also fetch much higher prices.
In 2007, the world's largest mushroom was discovered, weighing 3 pounds [1.47 kg] and sold for $375,000.
What's so special about these strange mushrooms?
Those who have tasted them say they have a unique and interesting flavor. A mixture of 'darkness, good wine, and hard cheese' was the common answer. Many also describe a 'slightly floating feeling' after tasting.
Mushrooms are usually eaten cold, and the favorite dish is combining them with a pasta dish.
Hard to find
Like anything precious, white mushrooms are rare and difficult to find. They grow underground, under special trees, and the greatest experts in locating them are... dogs and pigs. Their special sense of smell leads them to the exact spot where it's worth digging and scooping up the precious food.
But pigs, it turns out, love the mushroom exceptionally. And attempts to use them resulted in most of the valuable mushrooms being eaten by them. The use, therefore, was mainly done by dogs trained for this purpose.
The white mushroom market turns over millions every year, and it is a business reminiscent of a diamond mine.
There are special schools that train 'mushroom hunters' who spend years training in how to locate these precious mushrooms. The training begins at a young age.
The great competition, and such limited resources, cause two very undesirable phenomena: quite a few trained dogs are poisoned by competitors, who fear that the competitor's dogs will detect the mushrooms first.
Additionally, any attempt to elicit information, informative or scientific, about the subject from the hunters is met with a wall of silence stemming from the great fear that someone is going to find the precious mushrooms before them.
So if you really like mushrooms, and not for research purposes, go to Italy, and break your piggy bank first.
[Source: real reading].
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