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| Truffles ready for grading | Sue grading truffles in France 2007 |
In 2004 Damon Boorman & Sue Burlikowski began training and deploying truffle dogs. We founded Black Solitaire Ventures in 2005 and continue to be involved in the Australian truffle industry. BSV was set up to be an industry leader in the training and deployment of truffle detection dogs.
Over the past 6 Australian truffle seasons we have proven to all in front of us, that we are at the forefront of dog training and deployment with regards to the truffle industry. Damon has an exemplary dog-training background and was previously employed as the Training Coordinator, for the Western Australian branch of Australian Customs Drug Detection Dog Unit. Australian Customs is widely acknowledged as a world leader in detection dogs, and gave Damon the foundation for this very challenging discipline. With an exceptional grounding we have been training highly successful truffle dogs for ourselves, and others over past 6 years.
A testament to our success is that BSV’s dogs lay claim to locating over 2 tonnes of the prised black diamonds!! Also a single truffle weighing in excess of 1kg in 2005!!
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| Truffles ready for grading | Sue grading truffles in France 2007 |
Along with being truffle dog experts we have also gained invaluable experience in grading and packing fresh truffles, and all other aspects of post harvest logistics. We have both spent time in France learning ‘the way of the truffle’ under one the biggest and most experienced truffle families in the world, the Pebeyres. BSV perfected the Wine & Truffle Company’s grading and logistics system, and were an integral part of the WTC winning the WA Emerging Exporter Award for 2009. For the past 6 truffle seasons BSV has largely controlled the harvest operations at the Wine & truffle Co, which is one of the largest truffle producing farms in the Southern hemisphere.
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| Damon truffle hunting in France 2007 |
We have had the opportunity to see first hand, Trufferies throughout France, Italy and Spain. This has allowed BSV to see and appreciate many aspects of the worldwide truffle industry. Through our travels we have met with some of the worlds largest truffle growers and distributors, which has allowed BSV to gain insight from companies that boast 5 generations of truffle knowledge
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| Damon harvesting truffles in Spain Jan 2009 | Wow! A fantastic result!! |