I am the author of the Goodacity blog, a journalist, and a translator. For 16 years, I have worked in professional journalism, contributing to regional and national publications, both in print and online media. I have written reports, conducted interviews, reviews, articles on cultural, social, and charitable topics, as well as materials in the style of "solution journalism" and communication materials.
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While the husband defends Ukraine, his wife runs the family business!
After moving from Kyiv to Kolychevka, Ukraine, Tetyana and Serhiy founded a family farm and took a leap into buckwheat farming – a venture that has endeared them to the entire country! Ten years ago, they embarked on this journey, focusing on the cultivation of organic buckwheat and grains, winning over the hearts of Ukrainians.
They plant not just buckwheat and rye, but Love!
“By passing all the grains through our hands, we leave a piece of our warmth in them,” say Tetyana and Serhiy.
Their family farm has such a warm and inspiring name – “Sunny Land.”
However, with the onset of the war, this sunny land was heavily sown with bullets and shrapnel… Serhiy immediately took up arms to defend Ukraine and has been on the frontline for the second year… Meanwhile, Tetyana single-handedly continues the family’s endeavor – sowing the scarred land with seeds and love!
Black Soil Plowed, Now Sown with Bullets...
In times of peace, Ukrainians are buckwheat farmers, but when a threat looms, the Cossack blood surges in our veins!
“With the onset of the full-scale invasion, my husband took me and our daughters to Ivano-Frankivsk region, made sure we were relatively safe, and then immediately went to the enlistment office,” recalls Mrs. Tetyana.
“Given his relevant military specialty, he was promptly issued a draft notice and went off to serve. It’s been almost two years now since he’s been at war. During his rare leaves, he comes home, sheds his uniform and boots, and heads to the field – it’s his way of unwinding…
Meanwhile, with my husband on the front, I single-handedly manage everything on our family farm – to preserve what we’ve worked so hard for over the years… Many young men from our village are serving, so I have to carry the burden alone – yes, it’s very and very difficult, but I believe that victory will come, better times will arrive, and we will be able to continue and expand our beloved venture.”
“Our dear Kolychevka, Ukraine, was not occupied, but suffered heavily from shelling: there were hardly any houses that were not damaged. In our yard, the windmill was damaged by the shockwave, windows were blown out, and the roof was slightly damaged, but, thank God, there were no catastrophic ruins. The fields had huge craters, shrapnel, and even large rocket fragments on one of the plots… I called in the sappers to check the field – to make it safe to sow and harvest. Before the full-scale invasion, we grew as many as twelve different crops and cereals, but now, since I’m running the farm alone, I’ve focused solely on buckwheat, because planting and harvesting different grains at different times is simply not feasible…”
Family Farm "Sunny Land": Just the Two of Us... on 30 Hectares!
“Truth be told, it has never been easy, but we’ve managed,” says Mrs. Tetyana with a smile, reflecting on their farm work.
“Together, my husband and I took on 30 hectares of land, and right from the start, we decided to grow our produce without ‘chemicals’ – no mineral fertilizers, pesticides, or growth regulators. Despite the plethora of work and challenges, we never backed down and continued to nurture and expand our family farm! Why? The answer is simple: because we love it! And we believe that our efforts contribute, albeit modestly, to the development of our country, to the health of people who buy our produce, grown purely with love!”
Tetyana and Serhiy, both natives of Kolychevka, lived and worked in Kyiv, Ukraine, after their marriage. Then, they returned to their home village near Chernihiv, Ukraine, and thought – why not start our own business here?
“Buckwheat was our first love: we decided that if we were to dive into buckwheat farming, we’d do it together and make it beneficial!” laughs Mrs. Tetyana. “And so we sowed our field with it!
We lacked experience in this field and didn’t have the right equipment – only a combine harvester, and later we bought a tractor, but we decided to give it a try. Watching it grow and bloom was a delight for the eyes, and the aroma! And the taste is so different from what you buy in stores – richer and more delicate! That’s how we fell in love with buckwheat and became buckwheat farmers. To many, we probably seemed odd – leaving Kyiv to tackle, let’s say, the challenging work of farming, but we acquired a taste for it and nothing could stop us!”
“For the first few years, the buckwheat was just for our consumption,” she explains.
“Later, Serhiy built a machine for hulling the seeds, and we began to sell it, gradually attracting more customers. Before the full-scale war, we grew a total of 12 different crops: buckwheat, wheat, durum wheat, millet, barley, hulled barley, naked oats, hulled oats, oilseed pumpkin, potatoes, rye, spelt, beans… But buckwheat was and remains our primary focus! It’s more challenging to grow than wheat, corn, or soy: it requires more care, and yields less grain, but we have a special fondness for it! As the saying goes – let there be buckwheat, and no dispute!
We hulled buckwheat and millet ourselves to produce green buckwheat and millet, made delicious oat flakes from naked oats, and ground whole grain flour.”
All the equipment – for hulling, flaking, milling – was crafted by Tetyana’s husband, who has a golden touch. He designed and built everything from scratch. Serhiy was responsible for the “fieldwork,” while Tetyana took on marketing, managing their Instagram shop page, and handling customer shipments. She also began gathering herbs and preparing tasty and nutritious dishes!
She can talk for hours about the benefits of green buckwheat, sprouted grains, and organic produce! She became so passionate about this cause that she even earned a degree in agronomy! And, of course, buckwheat was the subject of her thesis!
Buckwheat "Nutella" and "Horseradish" Tea
“Everything that grew in our field, we were the first to taste,” shares Mrs. Tetyana.
“From bread made from our own grain, various cereals and groats, to my own herbal teas, for which I personally gathered and fermented the herbs, and even… homemade ‘nutella’ made from buckwheat and dates – my daughters absolutely love it!”
The produce from the “Sunny Land” family farm is known and savored across Ukraine.
“We targeted people who try to avoid chemicals, those who consciously consume organic food. Those who tried and savored our products recommended them to others, and so, thanks to word-of-mouth, we built up a network of customers. In Kyiv, both stores and individual clients placed orders, and we had many customers from the Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions,” the woman says.
“But it’s not just about buckwheat – nowadays, I’m actively developing our niche with herbs: continuing to make my own herbal teas. The most unique among them is, of course, ‘Horseradish’ tea – emphasized on the first syllable. You won’t find this anywhere else! My father, like me a herbalist enthusiast, read an article about the extraordinary benefits of tea made from dried horseradish leaves, rich in Vitamin C. We have plenty of it growing, so I thought, why not give it a try…”
“I dried some, brewed it – and it turned out to be very interesting and tasty! If you don’t know what’s in it, you’d never guess! I mixed it with other ingredients – and “Horseradish” tea became our “calling card” and a sales hit.”
Tetyana sends teas to the Ukrainian military on the front lines: both medicinal blends for coughs and colds, and simply delicious, aromatic ones. There was a time she sent tea to the Ukrainian military, just like that, without knowing exactly who it was for, and then a fellow villager told her that her husband called her from the front, saying he drank delicious tea made in our village – imagine such a “meeting”! There were also requests from volunteer girls for specific Ukrainian military units, or for charity lotteries and auctions – and Tetyana always helped them! This year, tea sets from Mrs. Tetyana even made it to Germany for a charity auction to raise funds for a medical vehicle for Ukrainian defenders.
Besides teas, in her herbal workshop, the woman also crafts original candles from beeswax and dried herbs, weaves Christmas protective amulets from wheat spikes, and for the soul – collects Ukrainian traditional costumes and draws inspiration from folk singing.
“Before the full-scale war, I was learning authentic folk singing,” Mrs. Tetyana shares. “Now, I’ve resumed these lessons – it helps keep me in good spirits. We hold onto our roots – and draw strength from there… Yes, times are tough for all of us now, with many painful events around, but we find our little havens of peace: in singing, in our children, in working the land. When you can observe the grains we’ve sown growing, the ear filling out, the bees collecting pollen from the buckwheat, the smell of herbs in the meadow or the forest, how our customers rejoice at our products. All this inspires and uplifts us! It’s always possible to give up – but that won’t make things better for anyone! So – we’ll keep sowing, keep harvesting, keep living, and keep winning!”
