Estonian Bread Day and autumn fair

Activities on the farms from 11:00 to 16:00

Sassi-Jaani farm – grinding flour with a hand grain mill

The seed of next year's bread grain has already been put into the soil of the Sassi-Jaani garden. Ask around to find out when the right time to sow rye is. On the barn steps you can try for yourself how hard it is to grind flour with a hand grain mill. 

Köstriaseme farm – Threshing

The rye has been cut in the field and brought into the barn-dwelling to dry. Now the grain has to be got out of the ears. The sheaves are taken down from the drying racks and the grain is beaten out of the ears with flails on the threshing floor. At Köstriaseme farm you can see how this heavy work is done and even try your own hand at it. Here you can also grasp how growing grain shaped the very structure of the house.

Kolu Inn – Competition for the best artisan bread, a barrel organ player and the EVM mixed choir

The traditional competition for the best artisan bread takes place by Kolu Inn. All visitors can taste the loaves entered and vote for their favourite. Voting for the best artisan bread lasts until 14:00. The winner will be announced at 14:45. 

As soon as the best loaves have been awarded, the bread festival continues with a concert by the Estonian Open Air Museum mixed choir, conducted by Erki Meister.

There was a time when a barrel organ player performed at every fair. Barrel organ player Aivar Jõgar has come to our fair from Kastre municipality in Tartu County. The sound of a barrel organ is a rare thing nowadays – you can hear it at the fair between 11:00 and 15:00pm. 

Opposite Kolu Inn – the Leibur rye bread competition

Visitors will be surprised by Leibur, a bakery that has brought together old traditions and new technology. Its products have been on shop shelves under this name for half a century already. Visitors can choose the best industrially produced rye bread. The Leibur favourite loaf will be announced at 14:30.

Sutlepa chapel – Blessing of the bread

Once the rye had ripened and our daily bread was baked, it had to be blessed so that the food would last longer. At 12:30 pastor Urmas Nagel will give his blessing to the museum's bread. The women's choir of the National Library of Estonia will perform. The artisan loaf to be blessed in the chapel comes from Rakvere and has been baked by the museum's long-standing partner Päts Sahver, a bakery that has for years made fine bread a matter of honour and of the heart.

Nätsi windmill – Straw-bale house workshop 

Sven Aluste, trainer at the Academy of Natural Building (LEIA), will share his knowledge of building with straw bales. Those with a serious interest are welcome to the workshop; to take part, please register in advance. The hands-on workshop “The main stages of building a straw-bale wall for the self-builder” runs from 11.00 to 13.00. Up to 15 people can take part.

Kutsari-Härjapea farm – Making bread and butter

The hostesses of Kutsari-Härjapea will bake traditional rye bread again this year. The recipe is hardly complicated, and yet there is something mysterious about bread-making that makes a loaf turn out well. The dough has been mixed, leavened and kneaded, the hostesses have finished their baking, and fresh loaves are lifted straight from the bread oven onto the table. Fresh butter is churned from cream, to be spread thickly on a slice of warm bread.

Pulga farm – “Big Peeter and Little Peeter” 

Bread lovers big and small are welcome to a puppet show about sharing bread. The much-loved actor Heino Seljamaa will open his Suitcase Theatre at 12.00 and at 14.00. The old folk tale “Big Peeter and Little Peeter” will be performed.

Pulga farm sauna – Packing the bread bag 

The master of the house has a long journey ahead of him and it is time to get ready. The body must be washed clean and the bread bag packed – with rye bread in it, of course. The sauna stove is lit, and while it heats, the household goes through what else should go into the bag. Come and see how a bread bag was packed in the old days.

Roosta farm – Straw crafts

While the rye grain went for food, the stalks were put to use as well. Straw was made into roofs, spread on the floor of the main room at Christmas, stuffed into sacks for sleeping on, taken to the byre as bedding for the animals and used as a craft material. In the workshop you can make bookmarks and straw dolls from the straw left over from the threshing.

Watermill – Mill tales

There was a time when Estonia had hundreds of windmills and watermills. Now the miller and his wife have come to look at a watermill that has stood idle for a long time. They are working out how to get it running again, so that rye flour could be ground here once more – and there may well be a reason to tell a ghost story or two.

Kuie school – The lore of growing rye

Learning has been shared in this house for a very long time. For Bread Day, the people who know more than anyone about the history of rye and its growing in Estonia have travelled here from Jõgeva. Staff of the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge (METK) have brought along different varieties of rye and will introduce the story of rye breeding and rye growing. In the kitchen, biscuits will be baked from rye flour.

Kolkhoz apartment building – Bread then and now

In the Soviet era bread was so cheap that it was even fed to farm animals. Today good bread comes at a high price, and home baking is held in honour again. Bread is also the inspiration for many exciting dishes. We will look at how easy home baking has been made and what other fine dishes can be made from bread.

Old cottage of Setu farm – Seto-style rye bread

In Setomaa, rye was used to bake rüavatsk, flatbreads quite unlike the sourdough loaf familiar to Estonians. The hostess will show how they are made. Cream is beaten into foam in the butter churn and becomes butter, which makes the flatbread tastier still.

In the yard of Setu farm you can get your hands into the clay and make yourself a bowl or a mug at the ceramics workshop of the Iidne gallery. Experienced instructor Priit Allas will introduce different ceramic techniques and help you master the skills. The workshop lasts about 2 hours and includes all the necessary materials and tools. Making one item costs 25 euros. Advance registration is required – write to priit@iidne.ee or call +372 5308 8838.

Kalma windmill – Grinding grain

Rasmus Tähepõld, a researcher of Estonian windmills, has come to visit the museum's largest windmill and will explain the principles by which a windmill works. His book “Pöörlev pärand. Eesti tuulikud” (“Turning Heritage. Estonian Windmills”) will also be on sale.