Truffles may help save a quintessential part of American culture, the small mountain farm. Davey Crockett's birthplace, Greene county TN, is adjacent to my home in the mountains.  The Telegraph notes thatTruffle cultivation is funded by the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, which aims to encourage tobacco farmers to diversify into less harmful crops. Some 125  truffle orchards have started in the region.Many holders of tobacco allotments in this region had only one or two acres under cultivation.  The cash guarantee of a tobacco crop allowed these small farmers to pay the taxes on much larger parcels of mountainside used for grazing, timber and hunting (not to mention hiding the occasional moonshine still.) Since no other locally grown crop generates anywhere near the cash per acre of tobacco, these farmers are now hard pressed to maintain their holdings.  The most flourishing crop of late in these mountains has been the For Sale sign. ...(Read Full Post)