This week in Estonia is Bread Week (commonly referred to as Leivanädal). Bread is a big thing in Estonia: it comes in all shapes and sizes, all with different names, and many with ingredients that your average Westerner would baulk at. I, however, am a convert, and would never go back to white bread now.You see, I have discovered the joys of rye bread, which the uninitiated might refer to as 'black bread', and which is coincidentally the focus of Bread Week this year. (2007 also being the Year of Rye Bread.) It's not for everyone, but most sceptics are usually won over by the local take on garlic bread. Try it and see.
The programme for Bread Week, which has been put together by the Estonian Association of Bakers and the Ministry of Agriculture, would put professional party planners to shame, with schools and community groups up and down the country celebrating the staple food in ways few others would probably find exciting (or necessary, but that is of course what makes it, and Estonia, so charming).
The annual ceremony has already been held at Kadriorg Palace handing over the traditional Fresh Loaf to the presidential pair, and as the patron of the EAB's special School Bread project, the First Lady has also been busy with the launch of an exclusive new loaf designed especially for the country's school children.
"A professional selection panel put together a shortlist of the most healthy types of bread that are currently being baked, and they were voted on by the pupils themselves," Madam Ilves explained. "The children have even designed the packaging. It's made all the more exciting for them by the fact that the bread won't be available in stores!"
Bread Week will culminate in Bread Day this Sunday at the Rocca Al Mare Open Air Museum in Tallinn, where visitors can learn all about the history of bread making, sample the country's finest bready comestibles and enjoy concerts by bread enthusiasts from all over Estonia.
