For Sarma, Nothing Beats Varaždin Cabbage from the Southern Krbava Plain

Nearly five decades ago, a broken-down truck brought the Priher family from the Varaždin area to Lika. Today, near Udbina, they grow the Varaždin cabbage that Ivica Priher says is best for sarma.

Petar Priher was traveling toward Dalmatia when the truck stopped in Lika. While waiting for repairs in Korenica, he met people connected with Plitvice Lakes National Park. They asked what he was carrying. When he replied that it was potatoes, they offered him a partnership. He began delivering potatoes to hotels at Plitvice while getting to know the region.

The cooperation lasted for years before the war interrupted it. After the military operation known as Oluja, the entire family moved from Nedeljanec to the Udbina area. Ivica Priher says the move was difficult at first. He eventually studied at an agricultural secondary school in Križevci before returning to Lika.

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Varaždin cabbage is the best for sarma.

The Prihers gradually bought land and worked larger areas, at one point planting about 70 hectares of potatoes and cultivating roughly 200 hectares of grain, along with lettuce and brassicas. Lower prices, payment problems, bad weather, and their father’s illness and later departure forced them to reduce production and seek a more direct route to consumers.

Ivica and Marina, who came from the Zadar area, eventually met at a fair in Benkovac and married. With help from Ivica’s grandmother Božica, they now cultivate eight consolidated hectares near their home. They are the only family farm in Lika-Senj County focused exclusively on vegetable production on this scale. Their crops include potatoes, onions and cabbage. Of 35,000 cabbage seedlings, about a tenth are Varaždin cabbage. All their fields use drip irrigation, and Ivica says farmers must adapt varieties and technology as the climate changes.

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Agriculture changes with the climate. The varieties change, and technology moves forward. Anyone who stays in the same place falls behind.