In this post, we introduce the major truffle suppliers in Buzet, Croatia and review their truffle hunt offers and some of their products, as well as discuss local truffle festivals.
The Mirna River Valley is where truffles are found in Croatia. One of the towns best known for its truffles is Buzet. This is about a one-hour drive from Rovinj (where we stayed). You can read more about Buzet on our page about things to do in Istria.
Truffles, those very special and expensive mushrooms, only grow in a few places in the world: France, Italy, and Croatia. There are two types of truffles: black and white. Croatia and Italy have both types. The white ones are more expensive, in part because black truffles can be
cultivated but the white cannot. Both black and white truffles grow in Istria. Black truffles are found year-round while white truffles are found in the fall and early spring. Since we visited Istria in early November, we chose to hunt white truffles - they are hard to get in the United States (partially because most are claimed by restaurants in Europe and partially because they cost ~US$3,000 per kilogram).
If you come to Istria and you like truffles (or want to try them for the first time, or want to go for a nice walk in the woods) you should book a truffle hunt.
Major producers in the area include: Prodan Tartufi, Karlic Tartufi, Pietro and Pietro (aka Natura Tartufi), Zigante, Tartufi Istra
Prodan Tartufi
TLDR: our first choice because
-They own the land where you hunt
-The view is spectacular
-Access is easy from Rovinj
-The whole experience has a homey, rather than big business, feel
-The dogs are cute and the food is good (but probably this last one is true for all the hunts)
We booked a private truffle hunting tour with Prodan Tartufi. This is a third-generation family-run farm, shop and tour and was really fun. Visnja Prodan Jekic, the grand-daughter of the founder, gave the tour. She talked about truffle biology, cultivation (black truffles can be cultivated; white truffles cannot), the truffle business, and her family history. Then she introduced us to her five truffle hunting dogs. We picked Capo, a 10-month old Lagotto Romagnolo (aka Italian water dog), a dog supposedly bred for truffle hunting. We suited up with long rain jackets and boots and then for about an hour, Capo bounced around the muddy forest, snuffling everywhere and every so often, suddenly digging furiously into the ground. We would quickly push Capo away and Visnja would carefully dig down into the soil with a special truffle shovel. On our walk, we found 3 truffles. Two of the truffles were white, each about 10-15 grams in size. We didn't catch up to Capo quickly enough for the third one, and we saw him scarf down a small black truffle! The dogs are trained young on the taste and smell, and they really love eating them.
After our hunt, we sat down to try white truffles with various foods. We had 3 courses. The first course consisted of several truffle tapenades on bread, truffle-infused olive oil, two truffle-infused cheeses from nearby farms (with truffles provided by Prodan Tartufi), truffle-infused salami and truffle-infused pear jam. For our second course, Visnja made a thick sauce of butter and ground white truffles, and then cooked scrambled eggs in it. Then, she shaved the two truffles we had found all over the eggs. Finally, for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream lightly covered with white truffle-infused acacia honey. To drink, Visnja offered us a local Teran red wine and a Malvasia white wine; she also served homemade elderflower juice (made from elderflower harvested on their farm earlier in the year). Everything was delicious.
Prodan Tartufi private white truffle hunt. Praščari 43 Sv.Ivan, 52420, Buzet. The shop is open approx. 9 AM - 5 PM (ring bell). Private tour is 180 euros/person and reservations are required.
Above: the foods we ate at Prodan after our hunt.
Buzet's Truffle Festival (First weekend in November)
We returned to Buzet a few days later for a local products market that our host at Prodan told us about. The area hosts a big truffle fest targeting tourists each weekend from Sept-October. The smaller market we attended happened the weekend after All Saints Day in November. She also mentioned a local Buzet event in September where the town council provides eggs for a giant scramble (2,300 eggs) and the residents provide the truffles--10kg of white truffles. It's a time for the residents to celebrate together their truffle-centered lives.
This November festival was a lot of fun. There were about 50 vendors, plus 2 folks selling donuts, 1 chestnut roaster, an apple seller, and 2 restaurants serving truffle pasta and other traditional Croatian foods for lunch or dinner on site. Among the main vendors were wine, liquor, the 5 major truffle sellers of the area, woodworkers, honey, herbs, potions, breads, cheese galore, and more. There was also a rotation of entertainers playing traditional music and dancing.
After sampling the wares of the major producers, we decided to drop by their offices/farms to see how they compared to Prodan.
Their office is right near Buzet's lower town and about 10 minutes from the truffle fair. We were able to see the salesroom, their cute dogs, buy some truffle beer (at left) and chat
about the truffle hunt experience. For their hunt, you go in a Jeep about 3 minutes from their office/store to their land and hunt truffles. They advertise a "picnic" there and also return you to the office to sample their products. The menu sounds basically the same as everywhere else. This would surely be a lovely experience, but we preferred the view and home of Prodan over the more commercial feel of Pietro. The shared tour here starts at 80 euros.
Pietro and Pietro won our tastebuds for their truffle honey. We did side-by-side tastes of Pietro, Prodan, and Karlic honey and thought Pietro was first, Prodan second, Karlic third. We bought a truffle beer from them as well and it was good: dark smooth beer with a truffle finish.
Karlic Tartufi
We drove 20 minutes from Buzet to the headquarters of Karlic Tartufi in Paladini town. The best part of this visit was the views, as we wound our way up the mountain with Lake Butoniga visible below us. Karlic itself is very commercial-looking. They have a store selling their own stuff plus typical tourist things. The tours here are 110 euros for shared and 160 euros for private tours per person. They have a huge dining room for the truffle tasting after the hunt (with the same menu everyone else has). The hunt is done in the public forest. You can see the dining room and the view (non-lake side) in the photos below. We were glad to see the view but again glad we opted for Prodan for the better view, access, and local feel. When we asked Google to map us back to Rovinj, boy what a cool tour we got. From Paladini we descended to the lake, then rose again on small but well-paved roads with one stunning view after another and enjoyed seeing teeny tiny villages dotted throughout the mountains.
Zigante is a big operation with many stores, a restaurant, and small hotel. We did not learn about the restaurant soon enough to book with them. If you go, please write and let us know! It is unclear if truffle hunts are only available to those staying at their hotel. It also seems as though the hunt is in the public forest. truffle hunt