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At the end of the Christmas month we went to visit the mistress of Jõesaare farm, Helgi. It is a trip into a solitary corner of Estonia – the nearest store at the Laeva crossroad is 15 kilometres away from here! The former shorter route that went along the bank of the Emajõgi to Reku, from there by raft across the river and then on to Puhja no longer exists today.

 

The road from Palupõhja to Jõesaare

 

The road from Palupõhja to  Jõesaare is covered by some twenty centimetres of snow. Even more snow only keeps falling and it tends towards drifting snow. On arriving we feel as if we had travelled to the end of the world of people –  where, if you go further still, the human species is a very rare sight.

But at the end of the world a nice Christmas tree sits at the window, there are gingerbreads on the feast table and a large pot of coffee! And on the windowsill nrxt to the table a geranium looks out into the yard as it should be in a proper farm household.

 

Jõesaare farmstead

 

How old is the farmstead?

I can tell 130 years, more I don’t know. On this spot there was a long threshing barnhouse earlier.

Did you grow up here?

Yes. My father’s and mother’s homes were on different banks of the old river bed. Here my both grandfathers and grandmothers lived. And Mother. Father was killed in the war at Velikije Luki.

How were your childhood Christmases?

At Christmas it always happened that Mother asked me to fetch something from Grandfather and Grandmother. And when I got back the Christmas tree was there, all beautifully decorated. For decoration there were usually onion apples. Some years there were also sweets hanging on the tree but this was already luxury. Or maybe some gingerbreads. With the sweets the thing was that they had been collected over a long time and saved for Christmas.

The Christmas tree was hung from a nail in the ceiling. The nail is still there in the ceiling.

Were there Christmas gifts too?

Not at home. But Grandmother always knitted a pair of mittens or socks.

Were the onion apple Christmas decorations from your own garden?

Earlier nobody had apple trees around here, because at the riverbanks the water voles ate all the roots of the trees. My Grandfather tended one apple tree for about 15 or 20 years before he got it far enough to carry fruit. But later mother planted apple trees with glass shards and food tins at the roots. So they started to grow. Or what do you know – maybe the water voles became fewer.

The water vole story begs the question – how are the relations here with beavers?

To keep beavers away from the trees I have taken the residues in old paint tins and painted the spots where beavers have chewed at the trunk. Then they leave the trees alone. Any paint will do, main thing is that it smells! Tar oil works too. What I have noticed as well – beavers dislike  blackcurrants. If you take blackcurrant branches and set them on the path they don’t like to come any more.

But the nice colourful beehives in your garden – do bears come to check them?

Just now I have no more than five bee colonies and I don’t want to get more because I don’t want to prepare goodies for the bear. Last time it happened was in 2005 , when the bear emptied the whole row of hives. In the old days every farm had their own bees, at least around ten. Honey was mainly exchanged for bread flour.

Now that a great part of the former floodplain hayfields are overgrown with shrubs, what flowers do the bees bring their harvest from?

My basic honey comes from the alder buckthorn, the whole thicket is full of it. When alder buckthorn is about two years old it begins to flower. It flowers throughout the summer. In the sedge grass there is a tall pink plant – purple loosestrife – it is a good honey plant too. And the knapweeds and after the mowing, heather too.

What keeps you at Alam-Pedja? The rich nature or instead something quite else?

My working life was spent elsewhere – on land as well as at sea. I returned in2003 – when Mother’s health became poorer. The nature here is very common for me. Rather it is the freedom here that attracts: you do what you want to and when you want to …

But animals too begin to realise that here is freedom. The Laeva hunters had a bear hunting permit and went around for 2 weeks looking for the bear. There was no bear. The permit stayed unused. I came home from the village – a bear walks in the birch stand, thump, thump, thump. Walks in front of me, very big and black. Looks back across his shoulder several times as if whoever are you there! He has his use too. After that the boars were hiding for two weeks: no need to fear that they come to the farm to root.

 

 Christmas table at Jõesaare. Talking, mistress of Mikako farmstead Pille Tammur (left) and mistress of Jõesaare farmstead Helgi Velja

 

See Arne’s photos from Alam-Pedja: LINK

 

Publication of the Alam-Pedja tales is supported by the Estonian Environmental Investments Centre (KIK).