The taste of the forest

Greetings from the moose at the Estonia stand. A huge head juts out of the wallpaper with a sparse coniferous forest. The sun winks through tree trunks onto green bushes. And to keep the scenery from becoming too romantic, a trifecta of signs dangle in front of the idyllic backdrop: "Attention, moose," "Moose sausages," "Beer." Below, sausages sizzle on the grill, available for four euros with mustard and dark rye bread.

"Kitschy doesn't work at all in Estonia," explains Volker Röwer, a native of Mecklenburg who first traveled to the northernmost country in the Baltics in 1989 and immediately fell in love - with the landscape, the people and their way of life. He finally moved 26 years ago. Since then, he has been organizing individual vacation programs for small groups or individual tourists as a tour operator. At the Green Week, he promotes the Estonian rural tourism association Eesti Maaturism at the Estonia stand.

Moors, meadows, forest and coast

"I've been at Green Week for a long time, but most of the people on our team are completely new," Röwer says. "They're young, energetic and full of beans." Just as the country is in real life: thoroughly digitized, innovative and blessed with a vibrant young startup scene. Only seemingly in contrast are Estonia's vast landscapes: moors, meadows, coastline, and about 50 percent of the land consists of forest. "You can see all of that as if in a cross-section at our booth," Röwer says. "Estonians live in the forest and with the forest, and at the same time we show many new products here."

Directly from the forest, for example, come the jams with real forest blueberries, cranberries or the yellow-orange glowing cloudberry. In front of them are stacked small jars of honey in shades of purple, because it is mixed with cranberries, wild berries or wild blueberries. A basket with bags full of black garlic stands next to it, in front of it nicely lined up chocolate bars of the Estonian manufacturer Kalev. Right next to them are two rows of pale yellow "Birch Juice Mojito, non-alcoholic," a lemonade.

Like a beautifully arranged boutique

This stand in Hall 8.2 is not large at all, but it is colorful and varied, like a beautifully arranged boutique. There is fruit jelly made from sea buckthorn or cranberries and beetroot snacks with grains and nettles. Non-alcoholic rhubarb-spruce sparkling wine, caraway schnapps and quite strong Vana Tallinn liqueur with rum, spices and lemon, cheese chips and rye porridge. Blueberry coconut puree with chia and rye bread with hemp seeds.

And, of course, a counter with elk sausages, venison, cheese, butter and wild garlic spread. And pickled or smoked sprats in cans or as samplers. "They're just being snatched out of our hands," says Volker Röwer. Just as it was with the white chocolate with blueberries. "It was sold out after five days. Next time we'll bring five times as much of it."

Delicacies from Estonia can be found in Hall 8.2.