In wartime Russia, a farm-to-table evangelist finds refuge in a village

Robyn Dixon talks to Boris Akimov, one of a post-Soviet generation who left the city in favour of a more rural life – and whose business has flourished as Western sanctions resulted in a farming boom

Boris Akimov and Olga Strizhibikova stand on the porch of their restaurant (Washington Post)

Russia’s season of war brought a harvest of bad news, as the nation launched a bloody invasion of Ukraine, slammed its door on the West, and tens of thousands of people fled the country. But while many of his artistic Moscow friends emigrated in droves, farm-to-table producer Boris Akimov has stayed, escaping into the peace of a tiny Russian village, reviving old culinary traditions and building up his small country restaurant.

For Akimov and his family, who are now based outside Pereslavl-Zalessky, a town northeast of Moscow founded in the 12th century, it is still the season when soft, young nettle and dandelion leaves are collected for the table, delicate clusters of morel mushrooms are found in the forest, and goats on the farm are birthing kids.

In Russia, the war has brought opportunities to small farmers, agricultural producers and local tour operators, as Moscow doubled down on President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 ban on imports of Western food and produce, in response to sanctions over Russia’s illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula.