Education "Buckwheat road"

Grikucis Countryside Tourism Cottage is located in a mesmerizingly beautiful place near the pine forest on the Merkys River in Pamerkiai Village, Varėna District.

Ms. Laima and Mr. Kostas are the hosts of the Grikucis Countryside Tourism Cottage. Their love and longing for rural life brought the two back to Pamerkiai from Vilnius.

Ms. Laima is a certified cook and great lover of buckwheat dishes. She can tell you everything you wish to know about buckwheat, their cultivation, traditional processing, cooking and serving. Sit down and take a bite of buckwheat appetizers and hearty dishes while you listen to the inspirational words of your hostess Laima, get to know the old work tools of the locals and perhaps even wait for your turn to try them out yourself. Have you ever eaten buckwheat pancakes? Have you, perhaps, ever tried to make a true Dzūkija-style buckwheat pie? Ms. Laima bakes this pie the same way it was done a hundred years ago by her ancestors. She uses buckwheat flour and baking soda doused in buttermilk and employs a few more tricks written down neatly in a timeworn recipe created by the women of Dzūkija Region. The hostess will provide you with the opportunity to taste all of these and even more buckwheat or other dishes that are just as intriguing. If you choose to participate in the educational workshop titled The Road of Buckwheat from a Seed to the Dinner Table, you will try your hand at threshing, winnowing and grinding buckwheat with ancient quern- stones, sifting flour, making dough, frying and tasting buckwheat pancakes. Ms. Laima and Mr. Kostas are also quite familiar with other traditional crafts, such as medicinal herb gathering, wool felting and wooden spoon carving. They can teach these old crafts to any visitor who shows an interest.

Here, at the Grikucis Countryside Tourism Cottage, you can also take a look at ancient work tools inherent to the Dzūkija Region, make butter in an old-fashioned butter churn and play fun games. If you wish for a more active pastime, you can go canoeing or standup paddle boarding on the nearby Merkys River or take a walk in the pine forests stretching all over the Dzūkija Region.