April 5. 2023 - If you know that Croatia has an eastern part, you know it's where the wine and gastro region of Baranja lies. And if you know about Baranja, you know about Karanac - good for food, festivals, and even crypto. Among its most famous events is the Spring Fair, where traditional food, music, and dances are presented and celebrated. The central part of the whole thing is the Smokehouse Princess award given out for the heaviest slab of bacon, of course.

As Glas Slavonije writes, this time, the winner was Matija Povoljnjak from Jagodnjak, a 12-year-old with just a little help from his father. The boy brought the heaviest bacon, weighing 19.5 kilograms, to Saturday's Spring Fair in Karanac, which was declared this year's smokehouse princess.

His father, Zlatko, the owner of the OPG of the same name, taught Matija the secrets of the pig and pork business from an early age.

"Dad gave me a pig that I took care of. When she became a sow from a piglet, we did the butchery and left a big slab of bacon. It needs to be seasoned, smoked, and later dried in the air", Matija explained after a dozen slabs of bacon were weighed and he was announced the winner. When asked about the fate of the smokehouse princess, Matija, with a smile, answered briefly: "We will eat it."

OPG Zlatko Povoljnjak produced last year's smokehouse princess as well, which weighed 15.6 kilograms. This year's "silver" was the Lovrenčić family bacon weighing 19 kilograms, and the "bronze" was the OPG Kopljar slab of 16.50 kilograms.

Before the bacon weighing, an interesting game was played, which the organizers called "Who hangs the longest." All those interested had to hold a 7.3-kilogram ham with both hands outstretched. The longest time anyone held it was 3.45 minutes, by Mario Sokač, who did not have to return the ham to the organizer since the prop itself was the main prize. All participants paid five euros to participate in the competition, and all the proceeds were donated to an ill resident of Karanac.

Considering the rain, this year's fair in Karanac attracted a relatively large number of people. Among the visitors was even a TV crew from Korea. The offer was slightly more modest than usual, but everyone could find something for themselves.

"We also organized this fair to preserve our local products, which you can taste and buy directly from the producers. These are not products found in plastic wraps or under lights in retail chains. These are all ours and local. This festival only shows that we are on the right track, because the number of visitors is increasing year by year, and we haven't done anything special. We're just doing what we've always done. Not even us, but our grandfathers", said Vladimir Škrobo Bajo, the event's initiator.

Matej Perkušić, the Baranja Tourist Board director, is happy with the turnout. He reiterated that similar events complement Baranja's tourist offer, especially since more accommodation is requested in Baranja during their events.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

November 25, 2022 - The largest fair of local products in eastern Croatia is held on the Karanac fairground alongside the traditional Cvarakfest. We are yet to find a more Slavonian event.

As SiB writes, like every year, the fattest and tastiest festival in the region awaits on the last Saturday in November. A festival dedicated solely to no less than the truffles of Baranja – cvarci!

The Karanac winter fair is an event that offers the products of almost 80 local producers, mainly from the OPGs of Slavonia and Baranja. Here you can make sure you stock up your pantry shelves for the whole winter. Famous cured meat products from Baranja (kulen, bacon, sausage, ham, cracklings, lard...), wine, brandy, juices, cheeses, pastries, cakes, honey, ground red pepper, wicker baskets, wooden kitchen utensils, souvenirs, antiques, are only some of the things you might find here.

Naturally, no event in Baranja can do without its famous cuisine. At the Vasar (fair), you can taste local cobanac (shepherd's stew), bean stew from a clay pot, kotlovina (grilled meat and vegetable stew), grilled sausages, and carp on forks. Wash it all down with top-quality wine. Before you start, don’t forget your aperitif of homemade rakija!

As part of the Winter Fair, the sensational Cvarakfest is also held in the same place. This unique event is a competition in preparing cvarci (pork cracklings) in the traditional way by “melting” them in a cauldron over an open fire. The winner wins the title of Cvarak Majstor (Cvarak Master). If you don’t feel like you’re up for the competition and would just like a taste, you can buy some fresh hot cvarci directly from the competition cauldrons.

The programme of this year’s Cvarakfest is looking pretty good:

Saturday, November 26, 2022

09:00

• Cvarak cooking competition
• Fair of local products: cured meat, cheese, winter meat, cakes, Baranja gingerbread, rakija, wine, antiques, wooden products, woven baskets, jewellery, souvenirs, etc.
• A rich gastronomic offer: grilled sausages, carp on forks, beans in clay pots, etc.
• Mulled wine

12:00

Cvarak Majstor Award Ceremony

If you are looking to spend the day in nature, with the added benefits of good food and even better fun, trust us – visit the Cvarakfest and winter fair in Karanac. Knowing how things usually unfold in Slavonia and Baranja, you might even learn how to do it and apply for the competition to become the Cvarak Majstor yourself!

And if you’re unsure about indulging in your cvarci as they are, you can always put them away, turn them into drozda and bake them into delicious pogacice sa cvarcima.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Travel section.

December 11, 2021 - It seems that I am not the only person who believes in the potential of eastern Croatia, as Beyondi Business Beyond Development announces the creation of an IT village in Baranja and a Cryptoberfest festival - from Munich to Karanac. 

In October 2019, I visited one of the most progressive - and most remote - primary schools in the country. With one of THE most inspiring and progressive teachers. Goran Padunovic from Popovac Primary School close to the Hungarian border has been an occasional (and outstanding) TCN contributor for TCN over the years, and on a 2019 visit to Slavonia, I invited myself to come and visit the school to see just what kind of excellence can be achieved with the right mindset and dedication of quality teachers such as Goran. You can read more about that trip in Popovac Primary School, a Creative Beacon of Hope in Baranja. 

As I climbed the Baranja equivalent of Mount Everest (about 100m above sea level, from memory), I looked back at this beautiful, fertile and increasingly empty part of eastern Croatia, and I wrote this:

I had come to the east of Croatia knowing I would meet great people (it is impossible not to in Slavonia), but I thought I would come across a lot more despair. Quite the opposite was true. People here have got such a great attitude to life, the nature truly is unspoiled, and there is a great sense of community and a very safe environment. 

As I took a tour of the area with Goran, Marijana and the deputy mayor to the highest point of Baranja (not that high!), I looked back over the flatlands of Baranja and Hungary beyond, and I wondered. Emptying today, but for how long? 

As they said in the school, the only thing missing in this paradise is jobs which has led to people leaving. In many other aspects, it is a gorgeous place to live, especially for those looking to escape the rat race in exchange for a more natural way of life. 

The digital revolution is coming, and it will come to Baranja as well in time. With one estimate of one billion people working remotely by 2035, I for one would not be surprised if a little creative thinking and investment might reverse the emigration and attract people to come and work remotely and raise their kids in this lovely, natural part of the planet. 

And then, yesterday, in my LinkedIn inbox - this!

This week my company Beyondi Business Beyond Development acquired this etno village house with 7000m2 land from 19th century.

We are going to build a first-ever IT Village on this planet with a goal to introduce various technologies, trends and education, supported only by crypto!

Our goal is to support the amazing Osijek, Croatia IT community with STEM education for kids, remote offices, jumpstart developer educations, masterminds, digital nomads etc!

We will combine our Slavonian hospitality, agriculture and technology! You are all welcome here!

I have an announcement for one of the biggest projects already confirmed! It is Cryptoberfest from Munich! Amazing crew and network of investors, professionals, developers! David Widmann Jens Ziesel will come and host it in Karanac (near Osijek), Croatia! My heart is full and this will be my legacy for this region! Thank you.

And so it starts... 

Did you know that the closest point in Croatia to Budapest Airport is Baranja?

Change is coming, as the Era of Community is upon us. Mobile community. 

If you have not been to eastern Croatia yet, and have little idea what you are missing out on, it is something like this - Time to Tell the Truth about Slavonia Full of Life.

If you are a foreign business investing in a business or social enterprise in eastern Croatia and would like to be featured on TCN in this series, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject Slavonia, Full of Life. 

Karanac is a village located between Beli Manastir and Kneževi Vinogradi, on the southern edge of the wine-growing Banov Brdo hill. North of Karanac there are vineyards, with endless Baranja fields to the south. This is the first village in Baranja that has been branded as an ethno-village, and for a good reason.

In Karanac, there is the Baranjska Kuća ethno-restaurant, which also includes the Street of Lost Time, then family farms Sklepić, Tri Mudraca, Bakine Čarolije, Kukuriku, Ivica i Marica, Villa Baranya...

Just like Zmajevac is the wine capital of Baranja, Karanac is the centre of rural tourism and represents Baranja with all its ethnocultural group. It is a village with as many as three churches: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant.

For a tourist destination to live a full life and attract new (and old) visitors, it is necessary to have well-conceived and well-managed events, and there are plenty of them in Karanac. Most have been initiated by the owner of Baranjska Kuća Vladimir Škrobo Bajo, and one of the most successful is the Spring Fair, held annually on Palm Sunday, the first day of the Catholic Holy Week.

Bad weather failed to spoil this year's fair. It was raining for several consecutive days, and therefore the whole Karanac was muddy and drizzly. Despite this, the festival brought together a large number of exhibitors, primarily family farms from Baranja (and Slavonia). It also included the competition for the Smokehouse Princess – the biggest, the heaviest and the most beautiful bacon.

Among the exhibitors, we must mention Petar Dobrovac, or as everybody calls him “Čika Pero” from Kneževi Vinogradi. He is one of the foremost Baranja producers of kulen, as well as homemade ham, sausages, bacon and greaves. In this category of exhibitors, we should also mention the Kraljik family farm from Belišće whose owner, Hrvoje Kraljik, won several times at the Graves Festival, which is also held in Karanac.

Also present were Andrija and Ljubica Bošnjak from Branjin Vrh, with their aphrodisiac speciality: ajvar with okra. They are also known for their plum jam and wine jelly.

The Gašić mini-dairy from Beketinci near Đakovo presented its fantastic cheeses. They specialise in the production of cooked and smoked cheeses from cow milk. Another dairy producer who took part in the event was the Đurković family farm from Marjančaci near Valpovo, which makes fine goat cheeses.

As for minced red peppers, we must mention the Major family farm from Kotlina, whose stemless peppers are hand-picked and the final product is made according to the traditional recipe. The women’s association “Sretne i Spremne” from Jagodnjak presented its delicacies. They are also known for organising a great gastronomic event, Baranjska Už’na.

Of course, good food is always accompanied by good wine. The Spring Fair featured wineries Szabo and Svijetli Dvori, both from Karanac.

The whole village was full of homemade cakes, grave scones, langošicas, and visitors could also try beans in a jug, and a special Pannonian delicacy – carp on a fork.

This year, the winner of the Smokehouse Princess competition was the “5 Kumova" team from Valpovo, led by Tomislav Blažević-Bisko. Their bacon weighed 196 kilograms. The second place went to a piece of bacon weighing 166 kilograms, while the third one weighted just 82 kilograms.

More Baranja news can be found in the Lifestyle section.