Bieszczadzkie Smaki, Smolnik: bread, liqueurs, preserves

Bieszczadzkie Smaki (“Bieszczady Flavours”) is a family producer of natural foods in the village of Smolnik on the Osława river, Komańcza municipality, on the western edge of the Bieszczady. Do not confuse it with the Smolnik near Lutowiska: this is a different village. It began in 2009 when Wiesia and Bogdan Ablewski, as the saying goes, “dropped everything and left for the Bieszczady”. Wiesia, from Bydgoszcz, had always dreamed of baking bread in the countryside and brought her own sourdough starter. Thanks to kind people they found a home in an old Lemko chyża (farmhouse), now about 140 years old. Wiesia says you must never approach bread in anger: it needs love and patience. The couple came to the Bieszczady intending to bake bread and make preserves to sell, and “life brought the rest”, they say. Today the family business spans generations, and guests who have come for years say the bread tastes just as it did the first time.

The rhythm of life here is set by plants, herbs and fruit: elder, pine, wild garlic, mullein, nettle, coltsfoot, sweet clover, ground ivy, raspberries, bilberries, apples, pears, aronia, rhubarb and redcurrants. From the gifts of forest, meadow and garden the owners make juices, syrups, liqueurs, jams, plum butter and honeyed treats. For 17 years they have baked sourdough bread, made cheese and home-made wild-garlic butter. In 2014 they opened one of the first nalewka (liqueur) works in Podkarpackie next to the chyża, and later their son Tomasz created his own absinthe recipe, “Bieszczadzka Wróżka” (Bieszczady Fairy).

Why go

• The shop and café in the chyża: rest, have coffee or herbal tea, taste the baking and buy products where they are made. With other sales points now closed, the Smolnik shop is the main place to buy them in person.
• “Warsztatowa Chyża” workshops: sourdough bread baking (demonstrations for groups or two-stage sessions for small groups and individuals), traditional proziaki; for groups, meetings with Bieszczady spirits including tastings and absinthe.
• “Smolnikowanie”, an intimate spring festival for lovers of wild garlic and sourdough bread.

What to taste and buy

• Sourdough bread and bread mixes for home baking; new: a low-carb yoghurt bread.
• Wild-garlic pesto and butter and smoked paneer cheese “from Smolnik”.
• Herbal syrups, preserves (including sugar-free ones with a pinch of salt), plum butter and herbal teas.
• Liqueurs from original recipes, with blackthorn, nettle or sweet clover, fruit spirits, oak-aged drinks and the absinthe “Bieszczadzka Wróżka”.

Practical information

Address: Smolnik 9, 38-543 Komańcza, by the road along the Osława between Komańcza and Szczawne; easiest by car. Hours (per the In Your Pocket guide): Tuesday–Friday 9:00–16:00, Saturday 9:00–18:00, Sunday 9:00–17:00, closed Monday; phone before you go. Workshops by arrangement; prices are not published. Contact: Bogdan +48 504 756 366, Wiesia +48 514 158 766, [email protected]. There is also an online shop.

Nearby

• Komańcza, with its wooden Orthodox church of the Protection of the Mother of God and the Nazarene Sisters' convent.
• The Duszatyn Lakes, a reserve with lakes formed by a landslide.
• The Bieszczady Forest Railway in Majdan near Cisna.
• The Veraikon icon studio in Cisna.

Official website: bieszczadzkiesmaki.pl

Photos: bieszczadzkiesmaki.pl.