Summer season
Today, it seems more and more necessary to be able to live like our ancestors did: in an environmentally friendly way focused on the family and the community, passing one’s knowledge to the next generation, following the natural rhythm of the day and seasons of the year. Old tried and tested skills and everyday wisdom which help one cope with difficult times are gaining more and more respect. It is once again useful to know how to grow plants and care for poultry and domestic animals, how to cook and preserve food, how to mend your clothes and do other handicraft or how to boost your health. Another thing to be learned from times long gone is how to enjoy fun games and physical activity as well as to live in harmony with the surrounding nature.
It is namely these simple skills and knowledge passed down to us through centuries that we want to share with all of you this summer, so that we can do something together for our living environment be healthier and for us to feel safe.
Do come to the museum where you will be able to learn and teach your to notice and care about nature, value old customs, do some simple types of farm work as well as share moments of leisure and enjoy life with your loved ones.
Explore the map of the museum
ACTIVITIES ON FARMS daily from May to September
Sassi-Jaani farm
Garden and Field Crops
The exhibitions on display at Sassi-Jaani Farm offer an introduction to the farm architecture and living conditions of Estonians from centuries ago. Farming and crop production have put bread on the table and clothes on the backs of our ancestors throughout the ages.
11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.
Ask the lady or head of the household what our
oldest bread grain is. Why do they say that peas and beans are the poor man’s
meat? When did potatoes become our second bread? From what plant was shirt and
trouser fabric obtained? Find out what colour the flowers of the flax and
buckwheat plants are.
Concerts by folklore group “Leigarid” on Sassi-Jaani farm every Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 (from 1 June to 31 August).
Accompanied by live music, an immersive village party is born from traditional dances, songs, games, and instrumental music. The party is slightly different each time, with visitors also included in the dances and games.
Köstriaseme farm
Making Firewood
There was never a shortage of work or activities on a family farm. From the break of dawn to twilight, work was done in the field, pasture, or meadow, in the barn or on the threshing floor, in the summer kitchen, or next to the furnace in the threshing room. Skills were acquired from parents and grandparents, and you had to be able to do everything yourself.
11.30 a.m., 1.30 p.m., and 3.30 p.m.
Ask the lady of
the house about what was once used to heat the oven, how bundles of sticks and
firewood were made, and how tools were sharpened. Find out what knives and axes
were sharpened with, and try your hand at sawing with a two-man saw and cutting
brushwood.
In the yard, a family of chickens is roaming around. Ask the lady of the house why the rooster is prettier than the chickens, what the chickens eat, and when they lay eggs.
Pulga farm
Games of Shepherd Kids
In times long gone, children on farms took part in working in the field or making hay as early as they could and also helped adults by pulling weeds in the vegetable garden or grazing and taking care of cattle. Still, there was time left for having fun and playing merry games.12.00 p.m., 2.00 p.m.,
and 4.00 p.m.
Ask the lady of the house about the weighing of the farmhand’s lunch or the horse
game. Have you ever tried to crawl under a shaft bow or walk on wooden stilts?
Find out what the toys of farm children are made of.
The herding of geese was one of the first jobs given
to farm children. Ask the lady of the house about the nature of geese and which
one is the Martinmas goose.
Härjapea farm
Eating Healthy
A farmer’s wife in the 1930s was able to take care of
the animals and do other farm work, prepare multi-course dinners and finer
snacks. In the context of progress in domestic and food culture, much attention
was paid at that time to a varied and healthy diet. Often, cooking courses were
organised, where housewives were taught how to cook delicious vegetable dishes
and prepare preserves.
12.30 p.m., 2.30 p.m.,
and 4.30 p.m. Ask
the lady of the house about the vegetables she is growing in the garden and the
dishes she prepares from them. Why does she not recommend eating a lot of meat
and what does she put on the table instead? See what garden products are
preserved in jars on the shelves of the pantry. In the kitchen, you can play an
educational board game.
In the barn, you can see a rabbit hutch with two domestic rabbits. Watch their activities from a distance and do not feed them!
Lau shop
The goods here are typical of a village shop. You will find household essentials, from a scythe to a bucket. You can also buy sweets for children, beautiful fabrics, fancy tableware, and seasoning for the ladies, and fine beers and wines for the gentlemen!
Kuie school
Schoolchildren in former times
School as always – long benches, children, and a schoolmaster or schoolmistress in front of the class. However, there are quite a few differences with the present day. The time spent attending school was relatively short and subjects were scarce, a lot of things had to be memorised. In general, the children liked to go to school because compared to working on the farm, it seemed like a holiday. However, for some of the more stubborn children, school time may have felt like real school slavery.
11.30 a.m., 1.30 p.m., and 3.30 p.m. Ask the lady of the house how children used to go to school. How did they write and with what? See if coaxing calligraphy out of a quill or writing with a slate pencil on a slate board is easy.
Sepa farm
Wool Work
The sheep was one of the earliest domesticated animals, and woollen clothes were an essential body covering. Just as work with linen required a lot of skill and time from a diligent farm family, yarn and fabric from wool could not be obtained easily. It took weeks and months.
11.00 a.m., 1.00 p.m., and 3.00 p.m. Ask the lady of the house how much work needs to be done to obtain yarn from sheep’s wool. Try carding wool, spinning with a spindle, and winding a ball of yarn yourself. Do you know what else sheep give us besides the wool?
Roosta Farm
Healing
Two hundred years ago, peasants healed themselves
mainly with plants and a healing sauna on Thursday. After all, the proverb
states that the sauna is the poor man’s doctor. When it came to more serious illnesses, they went to the village
sage, who could look into the future, read an incantation, and boil stronger
medicinal mixtures.
12.00 p.m., 2.00 p.m., and 4.00 p.m. Ask the lady of the house how diseases were treated in the olden days. Why were cups applied and what were leeches used for? What is the old massage like? When and what types of medicinal plants are worth gathering for the winter and how are they stored?
Kolga Living Farm
The world of a farm child
The barn at the village square side of a peculiarly shaped building is home to the museum’s domestic animals and birds.
At the exhibition ‘Every Small Step Counts’ and in the yard, you can learn about farm life in the olden days through a game and discuss if we could learn anything from it today. Where you can, put your knowledge and skills to the test!
The lady of the house can tell you who lives in the barn and how to take care of them.
Russian house from Peipus
Heritage Plants and Local Food
Russian Old Believers are an
ethnic group with an interesting history and well-preserved traditions. They
have been skilled vegetable growers throughout the centuries. Onions from the
shores of Lake Peipsi are one of our best-known heritage crops, the likes of which
cannot be found anywhere else. Onions and other garden produce were grown in
such quantities by the Old Believers that there was enough for their family’s
table as well as for selling further afield.
12.00 p.m., 2.00 p.m.,
and 4.00 p.m.
Ask the lady of the house about the curious Peipsi onion, and how is it grown
and used by the Old Believers? How
is coffee made from chicory root and how to get a samovar to sing? See if
chicory is easy to grind. Find out what else the Old Believers used for food.
Pipi and Juula, the goats of Peipsivene, are fun and temperamental characters, each of whom has their own character, favourite foods, and moods. You can learn a lot of interesting things about the life of goats and how to keep them from the lady of Peipsivene House.
Setu farm
From Old to New
The Setos have always lived ‘katõ ilma veere pääl’
(‘on the edge of two worlds’) –
half in Russia, half in Estonia. Thus, over the centuries, a very unique ethnic
group has developed, whose language is often not understood by ordinary Estonians.
The poor and sandy soil of Setumaa did not always feed or cover the inhabitants
there well, so it was necessary to live sparingly. Everything was used up and
nothing was simply thrown away.
12.30 p.m., 2.30 p.m., and 4.30 p.m. Ask the lady of the house what will happen to a fraying shirt hem or a threadbare cotton apron. Try crafting a nice rag doll yourself from scraps of fabric or used cloth.
Setu Farm is home to Vasso, the museum’s cat. When he’s not on a mouse hunt, he loves to sleep by the furnace of the farmhouse.
In the wooded area behind Setu Farm is the open-air exhibition Tallinners Settling in the Õismäe Bog Area.
Apartment Building of a Soviet Collective Farm
In an apartment building for barn workers built in the
1960s, you can peek into the homes of rural people in the 1960s, 1970s, 1990s,
and 2010s. What was everyday life like in the communal apartment? What was
family life like during the thriving period of socialism? What happened in the
countryside following the collapse of the collective farms? How is everyday
life organised in today’s remote working conditions?
In the basement rooms, you can get a quick overview of
the development of rural life in Estonia, from the establishment of kolkhozes
to the present day. The world of little Ilmar calls you to play and partake in
the joys of children.
Every Saturday, from noon to 3 p.m., you can take part in laundry day activities in the kolkhoz house. Every Sunday, from noon to 3 p.m., meals are prepared here following Soviet-era recipes.
More to discover
Kolu Inn offers delicious Estonian dishes.
Nuki farm presents a scene from everyday life of a poorer family. Making their living by handicraft, the cotter’s family has to fit in two tiny chambers and live under the same roof with smaller domestic animals.
Aarte farm takes a glimpse at the life of a fisherman's family from the northern coast. Here you can see items brought along from Finnish friends and longer sea trips, i.e. something you can rarely find on inland farms.
On Jüri-Jaagu farm, you can see the most delightful and colourful event of anyone's life – the wedding. The wedding house hosts guests in striking Muhu folk costumes, the dowry chest is filled to the brim with beautiful handicraft, the table is richly laid and the loud party can be heard even beyond the farmyard. You can hear young people whispering sweet nothings to each other in the clothes storage and watch a fun film about wedding customs in the stone-walled fish storage.
On Jaagu farm, you can pay a visit to a smallholder’s family from Muhu Island. Here a strong island woman makes her living as a seamstress, along with raising children. Her husband, however, as is the custom on the island, is away from home – at seasonal work on the mainland or sailing on a ship.
At Rusi farm, you can find out how several families with children lived in a bunch in a couple of small chambers of the barn-dwelling. You can learn about the turns children's lives might have taken and the impact it had on the life of their homestead. In the kiln-room there is an exhibition on Estonian sculptor Juhan Raudsepp, one of the children who grew up in Rusi farm.
Stop and think of fundamental life values in the old wooden Sutlepa Chapel. Sacred songs of the Estonian Swedes help envision their world.
On the ground floor of Kalma windmill visitors can see a photo display of Estonian windmills.
A prefabricated house is a modern, environmentally friendly, wooden single-family house, produced in a factory instead of being hand-crafted. In the exhibition room on the ground floor of the house, you can get an overview of modern wooden construction and its technologies. The prefabricated house is open to visitors on weekends and public holidays.
Take notice of the farm yards and gardens?
In summer, it is worth paying greater attention to the flower beds of the museum’s farms. Many flowers have received nameplates, the QR code in the corner of which guides you to more accurate descriptions of the plants using your smart device.