It should come as no surprise for you to find out that the third most forested country in Europe has a lot of truffles..

But it probably will..

You see Green Slovenia is neighboured by two other countries that are not backwards about coming forwards and have no problemo telling you all about their amazing truffles.. Whilst this shy little country in the middle, covered in trees and full of high quality truffles is a little more guarded about letting you know!

Well thank the Truffle Gods that this is slowly changing as Slovenia wakes up to the wealth of Green wonders and Green renewable tourism that you can do in the Greenest country in Europe! 

Both dogs hard at work..

We already know of 3 different Truffle hunters easily in range of the Lodge and several of our guests have already been hunting with them, coming back with enormous smiles on their faces..

We are gonna tell you all about our truffle adventure with Matjaz and his dogs, so you get an idea of what is possible here.

Walking the dogs or being walked by the dogs in the forest..

Equipment Required for Truffle Hunting..

Cute dog(s)..

Man or woman with Wellies (rubber boots) and plenty of local knowledge..

Forest..

Dog treats..

And it is a tick,tick,tick,tick for Green Slovenia!

a typical Red Karst forest..

When to go Truffle Hunting..

Be honest, if you imagined truffle hunting, you probably thought of doing this in Italy or Croatia, but actually a lot of truffles come from Serbia! 

Green Slovenia has lots of different little Mediterranean mini regions and we know for sure you can go truffle hunting in the Vipava Green Wine Valley, the Coastal Hinterland AND the Red Karst..

All are within easy reach of the Lodge..

One choccy lab was very keen to take the other for a walk..

We do not want to spoil the stories or info gathering you will do whilst truffle hunting, but suffice to say there are different types and colours of truffle that grow at different times of the year, so you can go in the spring or summer, but the two best possible types of truffle are best hunted in the autumn.

Each season has different types of truffle though and most people come visit Green Slovenia in the summer, so for sure you can also go then!

We went on a fresh late spring afternoon and it was an amazing experience..

Look what I found..

What is Truffle Hunting?

In short, you arrange to meet a local truffle expert who will tell you all about truffles & the truffling world and then you go off into the forest with the dogs.. 

If you are lucky you will get to hold the dog's lead and once the magic code word is said the dog charges off sniffing out truffles from places we humans would never guess these little gold plated underground mushrooms are hiding..

Hold on for dear life as the dog searches for hidden truffles..

The dog is rewarded for each truffle found and after plenty of treasure hunting and running around a picture perfect forest you all return to HQ with a bag of truffles and you would be nuts not to have included a meal cooked with truffles into your green adventure, cos then you get to have a meal that you will never forget!

Labradors or a similar cuddly type of dog seem to be excellent trufflers and get trained from an early age, but before you ask.. Yes, pigs could do it too, but would you fancy tring to wrestle a truffle out from the snout of a hungry pig??

Slovenian Tapas with a truffle twist..

Truffle Hunting in Green Slovenia..

So we agreed to meet Matjaz at 5pm in his wife's grandma's field near lovely Lokev in the Red Karst, where she was still busy working away!

You get introduced to the dogs and some background history & info about truffles and then off you go in the car to a nearby forest..

The dogs are trained to give up the truffle.. usually..

This would be an amazing thing for a family activity, cos if the kids were up for it they might get to hold the dog's lead and this would make for some hilarious photos as the dogs race off through bushes in search of the black gold!

You get told the code word in Slovenian for the dog to start looking, it's something like "ischi" or something like that and then you go off at a rapid rate of knots into this green paradise..

Timing is important to grab the truffle as soon as the dog finds it..

It is quite amazing where the dogs find the truffles, but most success seems to come at the bases of trees and fortunately there are a lot of trees in Green Slovenia!

Sometimes the dogs look a bit disinterested, but then the scent returns and every time the dog sniffs out a new truffle, they dig it out with their nose, grab it in their mouth and your guide will leap in to rescue the truffle from their snout and give them a treat for their trouble..

This is the Green Slovenian forest, Baby..

This happens time & again and you will cover every inch of this section of forest, so a good idea to have some decent shoes.

We took time off to go with Matjaz to a little wild field next to the forest where tiny wild strawberries were growing everywhere.. so these were our treats for the time being.

the scrambled eggs with truffles was sensational..

The time flashes by, then the dogs go back in the boot and go home and it is time for you to go back to the forest hut, the farm or local restaurant, where your truffle meal will be cooked!

So think about it, you get a forest walk, great company, cuddly dogs AND a meal at the end of it all!

Stunning view from the forest of Nanos mountain.. the Lodge is just on the other side of Slovenia's last mountain..

You were gonna go out anyway to eat, so it is a total no brainer not to agree to be cooked for after!

And we are pretty sure that even if you think you know the taste and flavour of truffles, like we thought, then just wait till you try the dishes brought out here and you will realise you have been eating in a truffle desert.

We thought we had tasted truffles before, but we have not tasted any thing like these..

Your truffle expert will take great delight in telling you this too and why not!

We do not want to give too much away, but you should come with high expectations and you will not be disappointed.. 

But we can honestly say we have NEVER tasted anything like it, the fresh truffles were combined with pasta, scrambled eggs and even ice cream to blow our taste buds.

Truffle gelato..

It is a kinda very fresh mushroom taste, but ridiculously good and like we said, unique, so you have to give it a go!

You can choose to combine your truffle culinary tasting with some local wine, very probably grown just around the corner and now you are right on track for starting to understand more of what we are banging on about when we talk about unique Slovenian Cuisine..

No one can doubt Matjaz's connection with his dogs..

If you want to have a look at Matjaz's Truffle Website, then here it is!

So that is Truffle hunting in a nutshell.. Another Green activity you might not have known you could do here, but now you know.. how could you do it anywhere else!!