We had a very fun and educational truffle experience today. They called it a truffle hunt, and we did indeed find four truffles, but it was more of a demonstration.

We met at the Miro Tartufi headquarters just below the town of Motovun. We opted for the group hunt for 90 € each. There were 16 participants in all. The true truffle hunters go out for hours in the woods with their dogs, while we strolled through the woods for about an hour, listening to Miro, who was passionate about his subject and obviously loved his dogs.

Miro told us everything we wanted to know about truffles and truffle hunting. Right now it is white truffle season, which starts around September and ends at Christmas. Black truffle season starts around March and runs through August, but the seasons do overlap.

Miro pays 250 € per year for a license to hunt for truffles on the land we walked today. Fifteen years ago he planted hundreds of trees on his own property, which he called a truffle farm. They recently found their first truffles in the orchard. The truffles grow on the roots of all kinds of trees. They don’t last long, about 20 days, and if not found, they are eaten by bugs and decompose back into the soil. You can go back and find truffles in places where you’ve found them before. Miro said he goes out daily. The price for truffles fluctuates wildly, it can reach as high as 5000 € per kilo for the white truffles.

They train the dogs very early, using truffle oil and bits of truffle in their food. They look for dogs that are not “lazy”, are good diggers, and not known for chasing wildlife. Miro had to give one of the dogs away because it only wanted to chase deer. The truffle hunter must be quick too, as the dogs will eat the truffles.

There was an older dog, Bella, who at twelve years old does not go out hunting any longer, but feels left out, so they must take her walking in the woods. He said he trusted her 99% of the time, when alerted to a truffle. Lila the Lab he trusts 80% of the time, and Jackie, who is learning, gets it right about 20% of the time.

The truffle hunt included the lunch. It was the best lunch so far of this trip with different types of truffle spreads, a salad with shaved truffles, and scrambled eggs with truffles. The eggs were fantastic. They scrambled them with butter, olive oil, grated truffles, anchovies and Parmesan cheese. It was topped with shaved truffles.

It was well run and felt like an honest example of what a truffle business can be. The dogs seemed happy and Miro and his family and helpers seemed genuine and friendly.

After our truffle filled morning we drove twenty minutes to the small town of Grožnjan, a local artistic community. It had restaurants and shops, and to our surprise, karaoke in the square.