Truffle Hunting Motovun, Croatia

Price: €€
Experiences: ★★★★ (4)

Authentic and unique experience of truffle hunting in the magical woods of old Motovun Forest

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Experience the true demonstration of Truffle hunting in the magical Motovun forest in the heart of Istria, the natural habitat of truffles. Motovun forest is among the best and renown truffle regions in the world.

You will be guided by an experienced local truffle hunter, who speaks English and Italian, Nikola Tarandek.

During the truffle hunt in the forest you will be shown how truffles are found with the help of experienced truffle dogs. Additionally, Nikola will reveal some of the well kept secrets of truffle hunting, and how best to use them at home in your kitchen.

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Meeting point at the parking lot of Zigante tartufi shop
Address: Livade 1D, 52424, Livade, Croatia
Phone: +385 91 569 6835 Mr. Nikola Tarandek
Reservation is required!
Google Maps Instructions

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What is the best dog for truffle hunting?

Till now most of you probably already know that for truffle hunting you need a specially trained dog. The reason for that is that dogs have highly developed scent which is crucial since the truffles are buried underground.

Many  future truffle hunters are wondering what is the best dog for truffle hunting. „What kind of dog should I acquire“ is one of the most common questions I get from people. And I always answer without hesitation that in my long experience the best dog is the one which will be good trained. We do not have special kind of dogs for truffle hunting. You can use any. We mostly use pure mix/mad kind of dogs.

Important qualities a dog should have are a good nose, intelligence, curiosity, devotion, motivation, which can be found in many dog breeds or mixed breed dogs. Every breed has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of them are easily distracted, some other breeds, on the other hand do not keep their noses on the ground the whole time, while some of them have a short snout and have therefore weaker sense of smell. But every dog can be trained to be a good truffle hunter.

Nevertheless, there are always debates among truffle hunters what is the best dog for truffle hunting. Some truffle hunters prefer some breeds over some others. Some hunters have their own preferences and favourites. The choice depends also on the environment and terrain in which the search is taking place.

Looking at the tradition, there are however some favourites which are considered as best in truffle hunting: Lagotto Romagnolo, Jack Russel, Pointer, Spinone Italiano, Pointer, Griffon, Cocker are among the most popular.

It is worth to say that the Lagotto Romagnolo is considered to be the only breed which is specialized in truffle hunting and is therefore worthy of special mention.

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What time of year do you find truffles?

Searching for truffles is definitely the most exciting part when talking about truffles in general. Maybe except eating them. Let’s say you decided to put yourself into adventure and to try first hand how it looks like hunting the truffles. You took some courses, read some books, acquired yourself a good trained dog. But what’s next? How do you start and, more important, when do you start?

It is important to know what time of year do you find truffles and what is the right time for a harvest. It all depends what kind of truffles do you search for. There are two types of truffles: white and black. While black truffle is mostly available during the whole year, the white truffle is only available during its season.

In Istria, we have the season of black truffle Tuber Melanosporum between January and the end of March. Then, summer black truffle Tuber Aestivum between the middle of April and the middle of August. And finaly, the year ends with the white truffle season which begins on the 1st of September and lasts until the New Year’s Eve.

That time of year many of us, truffle hunters and our dogs, enter the forests starting our exciting hunt. After all, the white truffle is the king of all truffles. However, choosing any other period of year that we mentioned above is ok to try yourself in truffle hunting. And we definitely promise that you won’t miss all the fun and excitement it brings.

There is one more thing which has to be considered when harvesting truffles – the law. Many countries have their own regulations, defining the exact period in which the truffles are allowed to be hunted. Regulations also forbid the harvest of unripe specimens, because that way the underground fungus would be unable to spread and multiply.

Now that you have some more insight into the topic and that you have basic knowledge what time of year you find truffles, pick up your dog and head straight into the forest. Good luck!

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How are truffles hunted

If you ever wondered how are truffles hunted, we give you a quick insight into the matter.

While in the past female pigs were mostly used in truffle hunting, today dogs are widely considered as best in business. Pigs have an excellent scent and are therefore perfect for smelling a truffle, mostly because they contain androstenol, a sex hormone found in the saliva of male pigs. However, there are numerous downsides in using a pig as a truffle hunter.

First on that list is the fact that pigs like to eat truffles and they often take it in their mouth upon finding, decreasing that way the value of the truffle itself. Secondly, they do a lot of damage to the terrain and are therefore forbidden for truffle hunting in some countries. Also, if you walk around a forest with a pig beside you everyone will know that you are in the hunt for truffles. If we add a transportation issue for a ponderous pig with few hundred kilos in weight, we come to the conclusion that pig truffle hunting simply isn’t the best choice.

It is here that the man’s best friend comes into the scene. Yes, we are searching truffles with dogs and they need to be very well trained if we want to find truffles. So we completely depend on our dogs, because truffles are underground and for us humans it is impossible to spot them by ourselves. Today, dogs are considered the best choice for truffle hunting and are definitely the most popular.

There are many advantages of the dogs as truffle hunters. Firstly, they can smell only ripe truffles. Further, practically every dog can be trained to search for truffles. They are trained practically from their birth, while still puppies, by putting a bit of truffle oil on their mom’s belly. When they are a bit older they are encouraged to search for boxes with truffles in it, hidden in the ground near trees.

When dogs search for truffles, they know that upon finding there will be a reward. A reward is usually paired with a positive reinforcement clicker. The dog knows that after a finding, which is acknowledged by a click, a reward is coming next. When a dog finds a spot with truffles, it is usually trained to show the spot with the paw or just sit and bark.

However, in order to be able to hunt truffles, the hunter first needs to locate the area where the truffles thrive. The places in the world where truffles are present the most are countries in western and central Europe and in the U.S. states in the Pacific Northwest. Truffles love moist soil and for best results they need to search for areas where had been a lot of rainy weather recently, advisably 10-15 days after heavy rainfalls.

Here in Istria, the richest place for truffles is the Motovun forest located in the center of Istria, near the towns of Motovun, Buzet and Oprtalj.

When hunting, search must be focused near the bases of trees, since truffles form relationships with trees by attaching to their roots. Most common types of trees that truffles make a connection with are oak, fir and beech. So the hunter needs to search for those kind of trees first.

If truffles are present, a darker ground forms in the base of that tree, which is the indication which should be focus on when searching for truffles. This tip will spare the hunters time and effort, especially if hunting without a dog.

Truffles usually grow few centimeters up to 15 centimeters underground. However, some of them can be found 30 centimeters underground or even show up above the ground. A typical size for a truffle is between the size of a marble and a size of a ping-pong ball, although it can be even bigger.

Source: www.truffletarandek.com