What did we do today? 21-September

Here’s a picture from our adventures today in Croatia. What were we doing?

And the answer is . . .

Sarah got it right! Good guessing Mom. We did go truffle hunting. There are only two places in the entire world where you can hunt for white truffles, Italy and Croatia. We went truffle hunting with the Karlić family, who helped create the truffle industry in Croatia. The BBC also has an interesting article about the truffle market’s dirty secret.

Unfortunately, climate change is impacting white truffles, just like everything else. They’ve had a very dry summer here in Motovun, Croatia, and the forest needs to be damp for better growth. We were here at the very beginning of truffle season, so the couple our group found were small and the dog got one. Haha. Here’s a great picture of the moment of discovery after our guide dug the truffle out of the ground.

The hike with the dogs through the forest was only a small part of our four hour experience. Most of the time we got to enjoy truffles in all forms. They also had fabulous wine. When our host said she was serving Grandma’s wine, she literally meant that her grandmother grew the grapes and made the wine we were drinking. This is just the appetizer plate.

We’ve spent 3 nights in Motovun, a fortified medieval town on a hill, and every meal, including breakfast, has had some sort of truffle. We’ve had truffle scrambled eggs every morning. If you ever get a chance to visit, do not pass up the chance to go on a white truffle hunting tour. It was a truly unique experience and something you can only do in this part of the world.