Exhibition

Chumak Roads — Food of Long Journeys

Pyrohiv Food Museum

The upcoming exhibition is devoted to the unique phenomenon of the chumak caravans of the 17th-19th centuries — Ukrainian merchant-haulers who transported salt from Crimea, the Black Sea, and Pokuttia to all regions of Ukraine. The chumak road is not only a history of trade but also a separate food culture: multi-bake rusks, dried meat and lard in salt barrels, sauerkraut and pickled cucumbers in oak dizhas, dried apples and pears, cornmeal in linen sacks. The exposition reconstructs a chumak camp with wagons, oxen, and field kitchen. A separate programme covers the role of salt as commodity and currency, research on routes via 18th-century salt archives, and chumak songs as ethnographic source on food.