Rye

Dark rye bread – juoda ruginė duona – is a symbol of the Lithuanian home, offered to welcome guests and newlyweds.

Rye is an annual cereal grass growing to 1.5–2 m, with long, slender, bearded ears. It is the most frost-hardy cereal and yields well on light, acidic and sandy soils where other cereals fail. It is wind-pollinated and cross-pollinating, and when it flowers, clouds of pollen drift over the fields. Rye flour, low in gluten, needs a sourdough starter, which gives rye bread its characteristic slightly sour taste and long shelf life.

Significance in the country

Rye bread has an almost sacred meaning in Lithuania – it is used to welcome guests and newlyweds, and in old beliefs it was a gift of the earth goddess Žemyna. Rye is also used to make gira, a bread kvass, and fried garlic croutons (kepta duona) served with beer.

Where it grows

Grown throughout the country, especially on the lighter, sandy soils of south-eastern Lithuania – in Dzūkija and around Vilnius.

More: Wikipedia (en) Wikipedia (pl)