The Basics

A pinch of this, a little of that…. Estonians don’t seem to use recipes. The men stay far from the kitchen. The women from the country, like Leene and Evelyn, seem to know every plant and animal, how to cook everything, and have a solution for anything – they don’t need recipes. Estonians have far less kitchen gadgets than we do, and while they don’t use vegetable peelers they do peel rhubarb.
We have said this before, but Mooste used to be a farming estate. The land around here is vast and fertile, filled with farmland and beautiful stone and brick farmhouses. Before the Soviet years, the houses were far apart from one another, the Soviets forced people to move into block houses and actually transplanted farm houses closer to each other for control and to institute collective farming. After the end of collectivism, capitalism and cheap produce from Spain seemed liberating to people tired of backbreaking farm work with little reward – so despite the history of this region, people abandoned their farms. Only in the last year or two, since the economic “depression” began (yes, that’s what they call it here), have people begun to get back into gardening.
It is quite bizarre – the people around don’t even seem to know what their neighbors grow or how to acquire local produce – which does exist. The people were perhaps so spooked by abusive centralization that they now have none at all. We are working on discovering these secrets – but it is strange and frustrating, and complicated by our language barrier.
The two village grocery stores have slim pickings, and almost no produce. During Kliima Mike said we were eating “Crisis Food” because the budget have been reduced to 1/10 its original format. The food is cheap, though, and some things, like juices from nearby Tartu, are exceptional. We have been eating non-stop carbohydrates and dairy and NO meat since we arrived except some questionable pressed sausage (don’t bother). I am craving a steak.

CRISIS STAPLES
Rice, buckwheat, pasta, lentils.
Bread (leib) with butter at every meal. Never toasted.
Sprats. Small Baltic herring packed in a tin. Delicious on buttered bread.
Slices of cucumber, tomato, aforementioned pressed sausage.
Coffee. Tea. Vodka. Cheap wine from Hungary.
Milk, Kefir. Cheese.
Estonian, Russian and Ukranian candies.

A meal I made from Kliima leftovers to mark the arrival of our new resident Tero from Finland. Cabbage rolls.