Kick off the Autumn Season With Estonia’s Food Month
Text Timo Raussi Photo Visit Peipsi
September is Estonia’s nationwide Food Month, coinciding with the harvest season in gardens and fields. Numerous food festivals, markets and harvest events are being held across the country, involving restaurants, farm producers and tourist attractions alike. Here is a summary:
The month begins on 1–10 September on Hiiumaa, where one more warm spell and tourists are awaited: in the form of older female chefs, as the Estonian equivalent of an Indian summer is the term “vananaistesuvi”, or “old women’s summer”. A list of island restaurants that remain open in autumn can be found here. In Central Estonia’s Järva County, meanwhile, a festive pop-up dinner is served at four unusual locations on four “ÖÖÖÖ Café Wednesdays”. The Saaremaa Food Festival on 4–13 September consists of lunch and dinner offers at restaurants, an autumn market and street picnic in Kuressaare, an apple-themed home café day and side events on the island of Muhu.
The weekend of 5–6 September is one of the busiest of Food Month. On Saturday, there is the Võrtsjärv Eel Festival, Türi’s Apple Festival, as well as various food and harvest markets in Haapsalu, Kuressaare and Jäneda. On Sunday, it is the turn of a themed day featuring 24 manor, garden and restaurant businesses spread from northern Lahemaa into the surrounding Harju and Viru regions, offering food, medicinal herbs, wines and eye candy in the form of art.
The Onion Route area on the shores of Lake Peipus becomes a haven for local flavours on 12 September. On that day, the 32 home cafés and farms marked on this Google map will be open for “Buffet Day”. On the same day, the UMA MEKK local food market will also take place in Rõuge, southern Estonia.
At the Estonian Open Air Museum’s Kolu Inn in Tallinn, a regional food week will be held from 13–20 September, during which a tasting menu featuring six traditional Estonian dishes will be available for €25. The week culminates on Sunday with Estonian Bread Day and an autumn market.
At the end of September, on 23–24 September, the international FoodFair trade fair for professionals will be held at Unibet Arena in Tallinn. It brings together food-industry companies from Estonia and abroad, restaurant and accommodation-sector staff, as well as local producers. You do not need to work in the food business, however, to visit the Lamprey Festival in Narva-Jõesuu on 26 September. There, local fishermen, chefs and the public come together around a fish species that rarely makes it onto restaurant menus, and attitudes towards it are likely to be distinctly divided: you either love lamprey or hate it.
The September food theme can also be experienced at Tallinn hotels. Several of them supplement their breakfast offerings during Food Month with Estonian ingredients such as farmhouse bread, kama and berry jams. Information on participating hotels that also sell their breakfast buffets to non-guests can be found on Visit Tallinn’s “Eat like an Estonian!” page.
To learn more about this and similar topicsEstonian Bread Day Food FoodFair Food Festival local food markets Onion Route Saaremaa
