As Glas Istre/Luka Jelavic writes on the 28th of October, 2019 twelve mushroom associations with more than two hundred mushrooms, mostly from Istria and other parts of Croatia (Karlovac, Rijeka, Sesvete), Slovenia (Sežana) and Italy (Muggia, Vicenza, Trieste), participated in the competition in search and collection of mushrooms and in other contents of this year's manifestation "Mushroom Days" held in Brtonigla.

Everyone agrees that this is the largest such event, not only in Brtonigla and Istria, but also in Croatia, both in terms of the sheer number of participants and in terms of the number of visitors. The nice weather also made things run smoothly, which delighted all those present.

At the official opening of the 17th edition of the Brtonigla event, the participants were greeted by the heads of the Tourism and Agriculture Departments of Istria County.

On the first day of the manifestation, after the official opening, those there in a professional capacity went in search of mushrooms. The areas were chosen by the participants themselves as the primary aim was to find the most beautiful and largest mushroom and to prepare the most beautiful basket filled with mushrooms and other decorations nature brings during autumn.

Upon the return of all the participants, after hours of searching and collecting "forest meat", a special committee decided that the most beautiful mushroom was brought by the Bresadol mushroom team from Trieste, while the biggest mushroom, a 12 kg specimen, brought by the team from Vicenze (Italy). Members of the mushroom association from Sežana arranged the most beautiful basket full of mushrooms, and they also received the same recognition last year.

A large exhibition of mushrooms with 230 specimens of edible, inedible and poisonous mushrooms, collected mainly in the Bujština area, was prepared in a large tent, where  the scent of mushroom scents spread quickly. Visitors were interested in getting better acquainted with the mushrooms that were described, with their names and characteristics, and this was an opportunity to learn something new and to get to know a part of the world of above-ground mushrooms.

The picking season has been good and there have been plenty of mushrooms, as seen in the exhibition which was prepared by certain members. Along with mushrooms, art and other works of elementary school students and kindergarten students from Brtonigla on the topic of mushrooms were also showcased.

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Visiting Istria and not leaving a couple of kilos heavier seems to be an increasingly harder task these days.