Countryside Farm Elkas kalna saimniecība
A farm surrounded by pure nature, next to the outlet of the Gauja River. Meals made of ecologically clean products, cooked on live fire. You can participate in their preparation if you apply in advance. Herbal teas. Plant powders for health.
Inese and Valdis Stibe have found the harmony of life on the farm “Elka Hill”, surrounded by pure nature and wide landscapes. Inese is a certified herbal tea grower who has studied organic farming. A traveller can walk to the spot where the Gauja River starts from clean springs, but it is also possible to watch the nature from the spacious terrace of the house.
After walks in the wild, the hosts offer a hot soup made from organic seasonal goods on a live fire. In the spring it is sorrel soup with quail eggs, in summer – fish soup with fish from the pond, in colder weather – from colourful autumn roots and aromatic herbs. For desert – luscious rhubarb, blueberry or apple dumplings.
After a hearty meal, a hot, fragrant herbal tea awaits in clay cups. Wild and garden plants are a wonderful world which Inese explores with a real and deep interest. In the garden the hollows have high edges – an idea borrowed from the Medieval Times, whereby it is more comfortable to take care of the plants. From berries, Inese prepares jams that can be bought in small jars for takeaway. In addition to the usual garden berries, the tempting jams contain wild and selection ash berries, as well as healthy sea buckthorn berries.
On the farm, powders are made from dried plants, such as the red clover, cumin or coriander. Or yellow pumpkin flour from dried pumpkins. Tea can be enjoyed with biscuits or a pie baked with vegetable powders. During Livonian times, food grinding was popular in the kitchens of the upper class, believing that thus the body would receive as much nutrients as possible.
Inese makes natural soap mass, oil extracts and bath salt from plants. Each plant has its own characteristics, which have been known to herbalists and monastery garden keepers for centuries, and today are brought to light in certified courses. Everyone will find what they need in a natural pharmacy.
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