Evelin Ilves

‘The school canteen on the island of gourmands’ – Pere ja Kodu magazine, May 2012

Evelin Ilves

What is the only school canteen on the island of Muhu like, and what kind of food does it serve up to its students? Is it in the same league as local restaurants Pädaste and Namaste? Evelin Ilves went to find out.

Years ago, at a dinner one night at Nautse ostrich farm, I heard someone say that the people on Muhu dreamt of the island becoming the gourmet atoll of the Nordics. Somewhere where there would be more outstanding and unique places to eat per head of population than anywhere else. The locals are known as prodigious cooks: many of them chefs by hobby, although the island attracts its share of leading chefs, too. Pädaste, Namaste, Nautse and Kala-kohvik are names that not only Estonian food-lovers are familiar with. But how is the kitchen run in Muhu's only school, whence all of the island's cooking talent and gourmands have sprung?

Good local ingredients

The 2000 or so people spread about Muhu's 52 villages manage, between them, to operate one school: an elementary school with around a hundred pupils. Kuressaare, the county capital, lies 70 km to the south-west and is little more than an hour's drive away; getting to the national capital, Tallinn, on the other hand, though a mere 150 km to the north-east, takes at least three hours, and sometimes even an entire day.

Whether the relative isolation of Muhu means catering for its school children is a more complicated affair is the first thing we asked Maire Liitmäe, the jovial lady who runs its canteen.

"Not at all!" she replies. "We're used to things not being delivered every day. And we make as much use as possible of things we can get hold of locally: bread and meat products from Saaremaa – and we always check to make sure the meat really is meat! – and potatoes and vegetables from local farms. Oh, and apples and pumpkin, too."

Maire is proud of the fact that they have fought for and won the right to pickle their own pumpkin at the school, and offers us some to try. "At first you always think you won't be able to get such-and-such and you won't get any of that," she says, "but if you do your damnedest, you can get whatever you need!"

The same can be said of the children's eating habits. Every autumn the canteen faces the challenge of getting the little ones to eat – there are always pupils who are new not only to the school, but to the idea of eating anything other than mashed potato or macaroni. One of the cooks at the school, Meeli Targem, has been feeding the local children for almost 45 years, while testing out new approaches on her own five offspring. She knows how to get even the most intractable pupils to try new things. "You just have to get them to try a little – a single mouthful is usually enough to get 90% of kids to eat the rest," she explains. "You can't just present it to them on the plate. You have to talk them into it, and through it."

10.05.2012

Photos

Evelin Ilves and Gerd Kanter visited the school of swimmer Anette Remmelg

Evelin Ilves and discus thrower Gerd Kanter today visited Harkujärve Basic School to acknowledge swimmer Anette Remmelg in front of her school family. Anette won the Young Athlete Prize of the First Lady's Foundation of the Cultural Foundation of the President of the Republic this week.

16.05.2012

Evelin Ilves acknowledged young athletes

Evelin Ilves in the Office of the President today awarded, for the sixth time, the Young Athlete prizes to three fine young people – the athletes acknowledged for their achievements were swimmers Anette Remmelg and Roberta Mikk and track and field athlete, Kaur Kivistik.

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Evelin Ilves watched puppet theatre performance with children’s hospital patients

Evelin Ilves, the patron of the "Helping Kids" charity campaign for Tallinn Children's Hospital today participated at the Share the Power of My Dream event, organised by Minu Unistuste Päev Foundation, where the children enjoyed the Estonian State Puppet Theatre's performance of A Shepherd Boy Becomes a King.

09.05.2012