Wekara's farm house history

Vekara’s farm is one of the three houses of Sonnila village in Kokemäki. In past times, the farm was known by it’s original name of Vesa. Vekara’s farm is located only 1.5 km from the town centre of Kokemäki. At the same time, the farm is also located similarly 1.5 km from the River Kokemäki.

The main building of the farm was built in 1790 and was moved to its present location from the group village in 1830.

The farm has been owned by the Anttila family since 1915. The house is known in the parish as Anttila-Vekara. The current hosts of the farm are Tommi Anttila and Oili Rastas-Anttila.

Prior to Tommi Anttila, the hosts of the Wekara farm have been, Tommi’s grandfather, Kalle Anttila, and his aunt Amanda Rauvola, who jointly owned the farm during 1915-1928 and Kalle Anttila, solely, together with his wife, Anna Anttila, from 1929 to 1969.

After Kalle Anttila, the farm was ran from 1969 onwards by the brothers, Tuomo and Matti Anttila. Tommi is Tuomo's son. Matti’s daughter Sirpa, now known under the family name of Becker still owns part of the Wekara farm. Sirpa works as a physician in Germany. Sirpa’s arable land is currently leased to third party farmers.

Tommi Anttila and his wife Oili Rastas-Anttila have ran the farm since 1983. Tommi is by education a socionom from the University of Tampere and Oili is a graduate in the humanities. Oili works as a school-attendance assistant at Kokemäki coeducational school.

Tommi Anttila and Oili Rastas-Anttila’s family includes 5 children, the oldest of which, Tuomas Anttila, is a Master of Theology and is working as a military chaplain at Dragsvik’s garrison in Tammisaari, the second son, Juho Anttila is studying engineering in Pori, daughter, Annakaisa Anttila is studying cultural production at the HUMAK University of Applied Sciences in Kauniainen and the family’s youngest children, Tapani and Marjatta, attend primary school.

The Vekara practised farm husbandry until 1960, after which Tommi’s father, Tuomo, bred pigs on the farm, but the main farming direction was the production of seed grain practised by Matti and Tommi. Under Matti’s operating, the farm began to cultivate pea pods 30 years ago.

Nowadays, the main production of the farm is related to horticulture. The farm grows hand-picked pea pods, raspberries, and garden berries, which are marketed directly from the farm and around Finland through wholesale. The products of the farm are marketed by Satakunnan Hernerengas Oy, where Tommi Anttila is a shareholder.

During the summertime, over 50 pickers work in the fields, most of which have in recent years been Ingrian-Finns and, in addition, dozens of self-pickers collect the fresh peas and berries to take home. The farm has modern hostel standard accommodation for both tourists and pickers.

Anttila's farm has two residential buildings and accommodation facilities in other buildings. The surface area of the warm, residential and accommodation facilities totals almost 850 m2. The farm has modern food packaging facilities, refrigeration and freezing areas plus modern social and sauna facilities. The farm is involved with the Satafood- development centre in continuation-processing projects.

The history of the farm is on view in a home museum, located in a granary building, which contains artefacts from the last 250 years of the farm. The hosts will be happy to present the Vekara country farm milieu and the home museum to groups and tourist families. The farm can also be the location for various conferences and celebrations, without forgetting that our smoke sauna and warm water pool can be heated-up for visitors.