Marja Jäätisepang Ukraina heaks

My ice cream story possibly started in 2008, when my husband Paul and I moved to Supilinn — ’The Soup Town’ district of Tartu where streets are named after beans, peas, berries, and other soup and non-soup ingredients.

The story might have started also in 2011, when I acted as the main organiser of Supilinn Days — a five-day community festival that takes place each spring. That year, we had the Day of Open Yards on our program for the first time: people opened their gardens and homes to host pop-up exhibitions, cafes, and events.

At some point, I began experimenting with home-made ice cream — I can hardly trace it back to any specific year, though. And then, in 2014, I decided to give it a chance at the Day of Open Yards. Well, our yard was tiny, and we lived on the third floor. That’s how the idea to use a bucket and our bedroom window was born.

We still use the same ice cream bucket from 2014. Back in early days, our house wasn't renovated yet

Paul tested it first, tying the bucket to our bedroom beam with a 10-m rope. We needed a second, much smaller bucket, too — for the cash. I drew the signs on the reverse side of some unused wallpaper. We called our pop-up ‘Marja Jäätisepang’ — ‘Berry Ice Cream Bucket’, since our bedroom window faced Marja (’Berry’) street.

Every time, I make three flavours. Strawberry ice cream, the kids’ favourite, has been on our menu every year since 2014. Other flavours vary from different berries to cheesecake and spiced pumpkin.

We sell for two hours, or until we are sold out. This is our optimum capacity — both in terms of the freezer size and Paul’s bucket-operating muscle endurance.

Facebook events allow us to track back our pop-up cafe activities

Back in 2014, I designed ads for our pop-up cafe. We printed them on A4s and attached them to lighting poles in our district. In the years to come, we relied on Facebook events and the festival program.

So far, it has been a great success. People queue up even before we open the window. I’ve never had so much joy from an event like this.

We have been blessed with decent weather and nice customers. Even when cold, the rain has passed us by

In recent years, there have been several changes to the process. We welcomed two new team members: Jaanika, who bakes perfect waffle cones for the ice cream (earlier, we sold ice cream in plastic or paper cups), and our son Anton, who wraps napkins around them.

Also, in 2023 and 2025, we contributed all the money we raised from the ice cream sales to Ukraine. In 2025, it was 125 ice cream cones and 442 euros.