Why are we so drawn to the countryside? A break from the hustle and bustle of the city? Fresh air? Yes, that’s all true, but we are also drawn to the dacha lifestyle, which is closely connected with food. Many of our compatriots love those long dacha lunches and dinners. In Russia people’s obsession with dachas appeared — somewhat surprisingly — in the 19th century.
That was when the idea of a “dacha” became relevant — after the abolition of serfdom (in 1861) and the disappearance of enormous private farm estates. Of course, the term existed before. It’s from the word давать (to give).
For more than 150 years, dacha estates were the privilege of the aristocracy, “given” by the tsar for a service or merit. Greenhouses with exotic plants were an integral part of a nobleman's estate. Many owners kept greenhouses to grow fresh herbs, cucumbers and, of course, exotic vegetables to amaze their neighbors.
And the owners of estates did not consider it shameful to work on them. As a rule, greenhouses were built of wood; stone cellars were built for growing seedlings. For many noblemen, vegetable growing was a serious hobby and sometimes one of the few pleasures in life.
This was especially true of the Decembrists (the insurrectionists of 1825) who were exiled to Siberia. Decembrist Vladimir Rayevsky was the first in Irkutsk province to grow gourds and melons. In a letter to a friend he reported that he would harvest “an average of more than 150 excellent wa.