Four generations live and work side by side at “Mežinieku mājas” in Aglona Municipality. This year, the large family received the “Sējējs” award in the “Family in a Rural Homestead” category. Here, traditional Latgalian ways of life are part of everyday life and have at the same time become the family’s business, combining organic farming with a guesthouse.
The courtyard at “Mežinieku mājas” is dotted with numerous stone figures and white benches, one of which is reserved for newlyweds. The place resembles a small village, with guesthouses, saunas, a bakery and the family’s home, each building with its own purpose and role. At the beginning of the conversation, Mārīte’s phone rings. It is her grandson, who needs to get home from school. Mārīte speaks to him in Latgalian and later explains that Latgalian is the family’s everyday language. In the distance, fields stretch out, with a large hay bale stacked nearby and farm machinery in sight. It is a sunny day, so all the men are out in the fields – an opportunity they cannot afford to miss during a rainy autumn. From the very first moments, it is clear how diverse this farm is and how much care goes into everything they do.
This is not simply a guesthouse or rural homestead, but a living organism in which ancestral traditions, organic farming and hospitality have become intertwined across four generations. There are no outside employees here – everything is done by one large, close-knit family.
Life Around the Long Family Table
Mārīte Mežiniece, the owner of the homestead, describes the foundation and daily rhythm of life at “Mežinieku mājas”:
“We have a family business run entirely by our family. We don’t have a single outside employee; everyone contributes in their free time – some on a permanent basis, others before or after their main job. This is our everyday life: we are a large family with a long table and morning or evening meetings over a cup of tea, just like in a proper company. We sit down and discuss how things could be done better and how to get each task done. At the same time, we are constantly learning from every situation, because every guest and every event teaches us something new and makes us think about things that had never crossed our minds before.”
Life at “Mežinieku mājas” is based on balance – half of their efforts go into tourism and the other half into agriculture, with one sector naturally supporting the other. The farm has more than 70 beef cattle, and the grain they grow is processed on site to provide the animals with nutritious organic feed, while the food they produce themselves ends up directly on guests’ tables.
Cooking has a special history in the family, which Mārīte Mežiniece describes with pride:
“There have been cooks in our family for several generations, and our ancestors – both on my husband’s side and my mother’s side – worked as cooks, or virēji, at manors. Everyone in our family knows how to do it – both men and women know their way around the kitchen and how to put everything in its place. All our girls, young and old, know traditionally ‘men’s work’, and the men know ‘women’s work’. We are not ashamed that a man weeds or a woman drives a tractor. That’s normal! This is how our ancestors used to live, working together in friendship, and that is how we live too. The men know how to bake bread and grind grain. From the age of three, the children know the whole journey from grain in the field to a finished loaf of bread, and no one needs to remind them what to do – they know that the animals need feeding and that they need to go and check on the rabbits.”
Latgalian Culinary Heritage
These skills are not kept locked away. The homestead regularly hosts cheese-making and bread-baking workshops, both indoors and outdoors, for adults as well as groups of schoolchildren. At “Mežinieku mājas”, these traditional products are not simply demonstrated in theory – they are made authentically, using old recipes and traditional methods.
In Mārīte’s notebooks and in the homestead’s kitchen, a place of honour is given to both EU-protected geographical indication products – traditional Latgalian pakša cheese and the historic Aglona bread – and products with Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status, such as Jāņi cheese and salinātā rudzu rupjmaize (sweetened rye bread).
Mārīte Mežiniece explains why preserving these traditions is so important:
“We know all these traditions, how bread goes from the field and the grain all the way to the loaf. People need to see it, learn it and experience it with their own hands, because real country food and old recipes carry a strength that nothing else can provide.”
In addition to the kitchen, guests can also visit a dendrological and astrological park featuring ancient Baltic symbols, where they can learn about the healing power of trees. There is also a mini-spa with saunas run by family members who are professional sauna masters, all of whom have graduated from a Latvian sauna school.
Celebrating Weddings – and Divorces
Over more than three decades, travellers’ habits have changed considerably, but the desire for authenticity remains. Mārīte Mežiniece recalls:
“About 30 years ago, there was a demand at our guesthouse for overnight stays in haylofts and hay barns. We put straw mattresses down, and people were willing to pay good money just to experience that romantic atmosphere. That lasted for about ten years, but it has disappeared now. Today, people have different expectations – they want comfortable rooms, but they are still looking for something old-fashioned, just with a modern touch. They want to understand and experience how things used to be, while at the same time enjoying modern comfort.”
“Mežinieku mājas” has earned a reputation as a wedding venue, attracting couples not only from all over Latvia but also from further afield, including France, Italy and Spain. Weddings take many different forms: some couples choose modern European-style parties, while others seek celebrations rooted in ancient ancestral rituals.
Mārīte Mežiniece describes Latgalian wedding traditions:
“There are so many beautiful details in Latgalian weddings, starting with welcoming the newlyweds with bread and salt and continuing with challenges designed to show that they are ready for married life. There is also a very special approach at the tables, where songs and memories bring up childhood, youth and the presence of ancestors. It all comes together in one warm, heartfelt flow. And, of course, the mičošana ceremony around the bonfire according to ancient traditions is something completely different from what you usually see today. As hosts, we sometimes go around singing to the newlyweds with pot lids and kitchen utensils in our hands. The newlyweds have to throw sweets, while the guests, blushing at their tables, have to ‘pay’ with songs so that we stop singing cheeky verses and move on. The tradition of collecting unattended belongings and having them redeemed in the morning is still alive, as is ‘stealing’ the bride or groom. It is a fun, timeless and friendly affair.”
Mārīte laughs that, although many people associate traditional Latgalian weddings with a good old-fashioned fistfight, that is one tradition they do not offer – they have never had such an incident.
Alongside weddings, the homestead occasionally hosts divorce celebrations as well. Mārīte Mežiniece explains:
“We celebrate divorces too – very beautifully, warmly and with both people taking part. Of course, people who slam doors and fight over the children don’t celebrate, but many couples separate amicably, understanding that life goes on. It is a deeply personal event, in a way like a Halloween evening, but it shows that a relationship can be brought to an end with dignity.”
A Neighbour Is Not an Enemy
The Aglona area has a dense tourism offer. More than 30 guesthouses operate in the immediate vicinity, but at “Mežinieku mājas” this is not seen as a reason for envy. The owner is convinced that rural businesses can survive and grow only through cooperation.
Speaking about relations with neighbours and the logic of rural tourism, Mārīte Mežiniece puts it plainly:
“There may be a Latvian saying that there is no greater joy than seeing your neighbour’s cow die, but that is not how we think in business. We cooperate very well with the nearby guesthouses. If someone comes here, they want to see a deer park, walk a nature trail or visit something else, so we find out what they are interested in and are happy to say: go here and there! It costs me nothing – neither time nor money – but I understand that when people travel, they want to experience more. Our neighbours send guests to us in exactly the same way. No one is going to travel 200 or 300 kilometres from Riga just to visit one place. It has never worked that way and never will, and serious business owners need to understand that.”
Although the journey from the capital takes more than three hours and the proximity to the border has recently brought moments of anxiety because of drone threats, the owner sees the true strength of Latgale. Her son-in-law is a border guard serving on the state border, and the family is well aware of the reality, but their joy in life and faith in their homeland remain undiminished.
Speaking about the appeal of the region, Mārīte Mežiniece says:
“There are hardly any houses for sale in Latgale at the moment – as soon as a property comes on the market, someone buys it immediately. There are deep, genuine values here and family roots that have been preserved, and people can sense that without words. Many young families from Riga who have no roots in Latgale at all are moving here simply because they feel peaceful and safe here.”
A Well-Deserved Award
Alongside welcoming guests, hosting workshops and looking after the animals, members of the family also carry out responsible roles in society – the family includes medical professionals, cooks, border guards, teachers, lawyers, musicians and sauna masters. Over the years, they have accumulated quite a collection of certificates of recognition, but receiving the “Sējējs” award, the highest agricultural sector award, was a deeply emotional experience.
Mārīte Mežiniece recalls the day of the ceremony:
“We had simply dressed up and gone to Riga to show the children the city, without having any idea what was waiting for us. When they announced our name at the ceremony, the little ones shouted: ‘It can’t be!’ Mum said she couldn’t even get up from her seat. We all went onto the stage with tears in our eyes. I watched my husband wipe away his tears and thought: ‘Oh, my God!’ It was an enormous surprise and a truly rewarding moment. On the way home, my husband said: ‘Well, I suppose we must have deserved it.’ And the children replied in chorus: ‘Of course!’”
As the conversation turns to what gets them out of bed in the morning and keeps the relentless rhythm of life on the farm going, Mārīte Mežiniece returns to what matters most:
“Why does a person have to live at all? Is it just to party and enjoy life? Where is the meaning in that? I believe the meaning lies in family and in the next generation, which will continue the little things we have started, or simply mow the weeds around a country house somewhere in Latvia. That is the greatest value on this earth, because otherwise, why are we here?”
While Mārīte talks about the farm, her mother, Marija Lilija Mežiniece, who is the family’s main bread baker and cheese maker, sets the table for the guests. During the meal, Mārīte writes a few sentences by hand on a small piece of paper.
“This is important,” she says.
It reads:
“Thank you to my ancestors for the love, strength and wisdom they have given me through the generations. I honour them, I am grateful, and I continue this path of light.”
Informational campaign on the Jauns.lv news portal aimed at promoting the CAP Strategic Plan (CAP SP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Programme.
