Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
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Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#2Similar in neighbouring Latvia. Friends who recovered their grandparents' nationalised farm organised one there. They got to meet neighbours who lived there during the occupation. Pictures surfaced of the transformation into five tiny apartments in the late 1940s.
Can't imagine the food safety institutions even considering pop-up home cafes in my native Belgium.
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#3Similar in neighbouring Latvia. Friends who recovered their grandparents' nationalised farm organised one there. They got to meet neighbours who lived there during the occupation. Pictures surfaced of the transformation into five tiny apartments in the late 1940s. Can't imagine the food safety institutions even considering pop-up home cafes in my native Belgium.
> Can't imagine the food safety institutions even considering pop-up home cafes in my native Belgium.
Many states in the US have "cottage food" laws that allow low-risk foods (think baked goods, jams, jellies, candies, nuts, etc) to be labeled "this is an unregulated unlicensed cottage food product" and sold without a license. Belgium may have something similar.
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#4Orthodox Jews do it every Sukkot :)
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#5Orthodox Jews do it every Sukkot :)
I attended a Sukkot, druing which the host jokingly called the tent a "Jew Fort" and they had some lovely food and burned some herbs and overall had a great time. I really like the religious festivals that integrate more people. Like Holi, where I got to throw a lot of colored sand or something at people and eat good food. I feel like events like that really help integrate communities.
Not Estonian, but a Swedish fellow I knew always had a summer event with lawn darts and other odd games and food each summer
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#6Swabia has something similar for wineries: Besenwirtschaft is a temporary small restaurant with very lax regulations. The main obligations are: at most 4 months open, at most 40 chairs, only cold food (often bread with lard), the wine does not have to be produced by the owner themselves, but the grapes have to be.
They are „advertised“ by hanging a broom outside (Besen is broom).
You tend to go visit a few over an afternoon, because they concentrate on certain wine-making towns.
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#7TLDR to earn (tax free?) money, it has nothing to do with hospitality
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#8Orthodox Jews do it every Sukkot :)
Oh sweet, they welcome non-Jewish strangers too? I didn’t know that, I assumed it was just for their own community
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#9I live in Estonia for a very long time now, over a decade. I love the kodukohvikud (Home Cafes) but the framing of "inviting strangers" is a little odd.
It's not free. While there is a lot of theoretical opportunity for bonding, it's still just a temporary commercial enterprise.
For anyone who has lived here, it's a known fact that Estonians won't exactly engage with strangers in a warm way, if at all. Smiling at strangers is considered poor social form here and it doesn't matter if you're a foreigner or native.
It does increase social cohesion amongst neighbors at least for a week or two. Kodukohvikud are a unique experience but it's not really "inviting strangers in my backyard" in the way a free community oriented and socially engaging event would be. Naturally, the article will only show the very few who have a story to tell while ignoring the fact that 90% of them don't have one to tell.
You get your keefir, you get your viineripirukas, pay for it, eat isolated with your family on a table and that's all most of the time.
It's akin to someone who makes pizzas to sell in the terrace to passersby. Really cool, quite nice but again, weird framing because you wouldn't say that about "Jean Paul who sells pizza from his balcony", so to speak.
I still love it, though!
Re: Why Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
#10Orthodox Jews do it every Sukkot :)
Oh sweet, they welcome non-Jewish strangers too? I didn’t know that, I assumed it was just for their own community
We invite everyone, Jewish or not. We've hosted so many people, strangers and friends alike. It makes more sense to Jews, but it's also a great conversation to have with others.