Western Australia's South West region has proven to be the ideal place to grow black truffles with the State producing more than the rest of Australia. This truffle season (which runs from June to August) will see the region's largest producer - The Wine & Truffle Co in Manjimup - harvest almost 3500 kilos, which is a major achievement considering Australia produces 4500 kilos in total. Manjimup was identified many years ago as the ideal place to grow black truffles due to its rich soils and cool climate which are similar to those in renowned truffle destinations in Europe. The "black gold" found at the Wine & Truffle Co is now exported to top restaurants around the world such as Guillaume at Bennelong, Quay Restaurant and The Atlantic in Australia; as well as The French Laundry and Lever House Restaurant in the United States to name but a few. In 2010, more than 70 per cent of the Company's harvest was sent to 14 different countries. Truffle manager and head hunter, Frances Lee has begun the task of finding the valuable harvest. With over 13000 trees on the property to look under, she will use five dogs to scour the 70 rows of trees over the weeks ahead, assisted by up to 30 employees who are mainly made up of European backpackers. The picking of the truffles happens every five days and Fran hunts with the dogs and marks the truffles with a pink tag; then collectors come through the rows of trees and record the tree number, row number, how deep the truffle is and inspect ...
Tags: food, drink, truffles, australia, perth, western australia, wine, black truffles, pigs, hunt, dogs
No comments:
Post a Comment