Recently the FGD Estates team hosted an intimate event at The Truffle Farm which was an opportunity for us to treat a small group of our professional contacts to a really memorable event. We all loved it and came away with some unexpected parallels between truffles and estate planning.
We met Jayson Mesman and Damian Brabender from The Truffle Farm who told us their stories about how they came to farm and cook with truffles (Jayson is the farmer and Damian the incredible chef.. see pics of our delicious three course lunch below). We will not give away any of their stories but both were worth the visit, even without the delicious food! They were excellent storytellers and added a layer of interest to an already wonderful day.
Arguably the best part of the day was having the opportunity to go on a truffle hunt with Willow, the truffle finding Labrador (who was adorable, and had a very impressive nose). For many of us, this was our first experience of real truffles (and to be honest we didn’t really have high expectations, having only experienced truffle oil before .. did you know truffle oil is almost always fake?) but the experience of learning about the world of truffles, getting to find some for ourselves (with a lot of help from Willow) and then experiencing their unique flavour meant we all walked away fully understanding what all the fuss is about (real truffles that is, not the oil!). We would absolutely recommend a trip to The Truffle Farm, both for the experience and for the culinary enjoyment of truffles.
Jayson and Damian host events like this because their goal is to educate the world about truffles, they had a great catch phrase – “we want people to have truffles on their shopping list, not their bucket list.” This resonated with us because it got us thinking about the work we do in estate planning. For many people, a Will is something on their ‘bucket list,’ i.e. something they will do later, down the track, when the kids are older, or when their assets are greater. We see so many of our clients who come to us to write a Will after a significant health scare or death in the family, a time when often the last thing one is wanting to think about is their own death.
We also unfortunately do administration work on many estates for people who have died without a Will, meaning it is seldom possible for their estate to be divided as they may have wished. In many cases this means significant assets pass to people the person never wanted to benefit (for example, an estranged spouse, a parent they have had nothing to do with, or a half-sibling they never knew).
We would much prefer that our clients came to see us for an estate plan now, while they have the time. They can feel secure in knowing that their assets will be distributed according to their wishes – and leave more fun and exciting things for the ‘bucket list’. As we all know, sadly, death is one of those great certainties albeit with unpredictable timing.
So if you do not have a Will yet, or you have not updated your Will in the last few years, put it on your shopping list to speak to one of our estate planning solicitors now. We can help you wherever you are in Australia so get in touch.
Likewise, if you have missed trying real truffles yet, you should add them to your shopping list too! (but talk to Damian first to find out how to get the most out of them).
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- Willow & Jayson showing us how it’s done
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- Found a truffle!
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- Despite the risk of breaking a valuable truffle, Jayson let us have a go too
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- The day’s haul
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- Lunch in progress
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- Truffle and egg ravioli
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- Damian creating deliciousness!
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- yumm!
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- Truffle panna cotta
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- Larry with our truffles after they’d been cleaned. Also known as black diamonds, they smelled amazing!
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- Thanks to our friends from Callaghans (and a few others who weren’t in this picture) for helping to make the day a memorable one.