The Vana-Söödi Farm has been in one family for five generations.

The founder of the farm was Peeter Neiman. After working in the manor for 10 years and saving 1 ruble each month, he bought the Old-Söödi Farm for 100 silver rubles in 1873. Before the purchase, Peeter had been a tenant of this farm for several years.

Peeter was illiterate, which is illustrated by the map on the wall of the farm where his identification consists of three crosses. At the time of purchase, the farm was approximately 40 hectares in size.

The oldest building in the complex is the old residential house, which was built in 1897 and is now a paradise for holidaymakers.

In 1902, a donation agreement was made, transferring the farm to Peeter's son Juhan. Juhan attended the Antsla parish school for 2 years. He was very interested in machinery and construction, undertaking large land improvement projects. Since there was not enough money for this, loans were taken out. He also gave loan guarantees very freely to other farmers, which caused the farm to be in very great difficulty, and there was a great risk that the farm would be lost. One of the toughest years was 1933 when they had to prove in court that the promissory notes signed by Juhan belonged to other individuals.

My grandmother also had a strained relationship with her father-in-law because of these foreign loans, and my grandmother said that if it hadn't been for the Soviet government, our farm would have been paying off foreign loans for a very long time.

The March deportation passed very close to our farm and was only spared because the farm was always in Juhan's name. However, since he was over 90 years old by then, he was not considered fit for deportation.

My grandmother passed away early, and since my father was an only child and did not stay on the farm but moved to the city, my grandfather lived alone for a long time until in 1989, my future husband Kalle and I moved here.

Grandfather witnessed the return of the farms and our marriage, and passed away at the age of 94 in 1991. At different times, two so-called small farmsteads have been separated from the farm, which are now our neighbors.

Since no renovation work had been done on the farm for a long time, our initial task was to renovate them and start shaping what you see now.

In our garden, there are two trees of great value. One is an apple tree planted by my grandfather in 1914, which is located in the back of the garden.

The second tree is a lime tree located near the entrance, which was gifted to us in 2002 by Lennart Meri, who visited young home decorators, as Lennart Meri was the importer and patron of the home decoration competition in Estonia

Our farm's most important award dates back to 2005 when we won the 'Most Beautiful Home in Estonia' competition.

For a very long time, we have been engaged in agriculture and horticulture, but unfortunately, small farms are still a declining phenomenon in Estonia. By now, we have made a U-turn and offer people what we ourselves value, but our guests value even more. This includes silence and peace, a beautiful environment, and certainly, very important to us, the smoke sauna.

We welcome people to our privately renovated farmhouse nestled amidst wild nature and fields, seeking hotel-like comforts where you can forget all your worries. You'll have access to a roofed terrace, a grill house, a children's playground, a full-size kitchen, a shower corner, air conditioning, and 9 beds with fresh linens.

You can also order a hot tub accommodating 10 people and a smoke sauna listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visitors should be aware that the host family has a small dog named Jack, and unfortunately, we cannot accommodate other pets.