FIGA Organic Goat Cheese Farm, Mszana near Dukla

The FIGA organic family farm in the Lemko village of Mszana near Dukla is one of Poland's oldest goat cheese dairies. Three generations of the Maziejuk family run it: founder Waldemar, his sons Tomasz and Wawrzyniec, and grandson Albert. The farm lies where the Low Beskids meet the Bieszczady, close to Magura National Park; according to the farm, it keeps about 300 dairy goats, and the pastures are among the cleanest natural areas in Poland.

As Waldemar Maziejuk told the "Biznes i Styl" portal, it all began with a single goat he took from a friend to keep over the winter. At first he milked the goats, made the cheese and sold it at local fairs himself. The farm has been certified organic since 2002 and its cheese workshop since 2011. In 2005 and 2015 the family entered more than a dozen of its products on the Polish Ministry of Agriculture's List of Traditional Products; among them is Wallachian cheese (ser wołoski), whose recipe, the owners say, was recreated from old records showing that local people once paid their taxes in goat's cheese.

Everyone in the family has a role: Tomasz looks after the herd and production, Waldemar oversees the whole farm, and Wawrzyniec handles marketing and sales. New cheeses, the owners say, come about by trial and error, often at customers' request — that is how the fenugreek cheese, which tastes of walnut, and the chilli-and-paprika cheese were born. Their motto is "competition forces quality": a batch that does not turn out well never goes on sale.

What to taste and buy

• Cheeses from unpasteurised goat's milk: white cheeses, rennet bundz and bryndza, aged cheeses, Wallachian cheese and "farmer's" cheese — plain, smoked, or with fenugreek, nigella, pepper, juniper, chilli or savory.
• Soft cheeses and dairy: goat's curd cheese, plain or flavoured, traditional goat's bryndza in jars, home-made butter, raw milk, sour whey and organic goat's yoghurt.
• Cow's-milk products: Lemko cheese and Lemko bryndza, organic "Beskidzki" cheese and an aged shepherd's cheese.
• As a guide (online shop prices as of October 2026): a round of organic everyday goat's cheese (about 220 g) costs 30.80 zł, a jar of traditional goat's bryndza (190 g) 26 zł, and a wedge of farmer's cheese (about 200 g) 31–34 zł.

Practical information

Address: Mszana 44/2, 38-454 Mszana (Dukla municipality, Podkarpackie). Mszana lies south of Dukla, near the road to the Barwinek border crossing; a car is the easiest way to get there. The farm invites visitors ("Odwiedź nas!"), and under the online shop's terms orders can be collected in person at the farm during opening hours.

Hours: not published on the official website; according to OpenStreetMap, Monday–Saturday 8:00–18:00, closed on Sundays (as of October 2026). It is best to phone before you come: +48 530 245 309 or +48 512 318 704 (SMS too). On-site payment is by card or in cash.

This is first and foremost a working farm with a dairy, not a fitted-out agritourism venue: expect to buy cheese and chat briefly with the owners rather than take a guided tour. Cheeses made from unpasteurised milk are generally not recommended for pregnant women and small children.

Nearby

A few kilometres away is the Lemko open-air museum in Zyndranowa. Further north are the world's oldest working oil mine in Bóbrka and the spa town of Iwonicz-Zdrój with its mineral-water pump room. Across the border, on the Slovak side of the Dukla Pass, stands the Battle of Dukla memorial.

Official website: serymaziejuk.pl

Photos: static.wixstatic.com.