Goutweed Salad with Cottage Cheese. Kodujuustu-naadisalat

Today, 70 years ago, was for 20 000 Estonians and their families very sad day.
On 25 March 1949,  29,379 people, mostly women and children, were deported from Estonia to Siberia.

8 years before, on 14 June 1941, 10,000 people were deported from Estonia.

What was their guilt?  The deportations targeted various categories of anti-Soviet elements and “enemies of the people”: the members of the former governments, higher state officials and judges, higher military personnel, former politicians, members of voluntary state defence organisations, members of student organisations, persons having actively participated in anti-Soviet armed combat, Russian émigrés, security police officers and police officers, representatives of foreign companies and in general all people having contacts abroad, entrepreneurs and bankers, clergymen and members of the Red Cross, kulaks,  Approximately 23% of the population belonged in these categories. Entire families, including children and the elderly, were deported without trial or prior announcement. Of March 1949 deportees, over 70% of people were women and children under the age of 16.
Because of cold, starvation and hard work, a great many of the deportees died. Less than half of the deportees ever returned to their homeland

Let’s remember all these people.

Today, for us eating weed, vegetarianism and everything from nature is cool. At that time, it was a matter of survival. I hope and believe that history never repeats. But knowledge about edible plants is still valuable.

Goutweed tastes like carrots and/or celery. Nettles are a bit sweet. Dandelion tastes like honey,. And wood sorrel is sour.
Nettles need to be kept in the boiling water 1-2 minutes. Goutweed and wood sorrel are eatable when fresh.
Dandelion blossoms are quite bitter, so try before using do you like them or not.

NB! Use only young, fresh, new, small weeds, grown in a pure and clean environment.

Mix together

• hard-boiled egg
• handful prepared weed
• cucumber
• cottage cheese
• sour cream/ creme fraise or Greece yoghurt
• a lot of greens: dill, chives, parsley
• season with salt and pepper

Film recommendation: The Little Commrade. The film is made for the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.

It is 1950 in the Soviet Estonia and the Stalinist terror machine works at full steam – 6-year-old Leelo’s school principal mother is arrested before her very eyes. “If you’re a good kid, I’ll be back soon,” are her mother’s last words as she is taken away at gunpoint.

So Leelo is on her very best behaviour, but yet her mother does not return. A fear creeps into the child’s soul that it is her fault her mother was taken. The confusion only grows as “good” and “bad” no longer seem to hold any meaning in these troubled times. Why is the Estonian flag suddenly forbidden? Who is the people’s enemy and why is the scary NKVD lurking around their home? Is it an honour or a shame to be a pioneer?

In this odd two-faced world, Leelo tries her best to be good, but is instead embroiled in one scrape after another and becomes ever more confused as to what it even means to be a good kid.

The first full-length feature of director Moonika Siimets is based on beloved writer Leelo Tungal’s autobiographical novels “Comrade Kid and the Grow-Ups” and “Velvet and Sawdust”. In parallel with the production of the film, the author is writing the last part of the trilogy.