Kasia and Michał’s story about Kashubia

“We never dropped everything to live here, because we have always been here and we feel connected to this land," Kasia and Michał begin their story.

We are seated at a table made of six-meter oak beams, which, we just learned, is more than 150 years old.

In the middle lie some Kashubian “ruchanki,” soft cakes made from flour left over from baking bread. Some only, because we are after breakfast, and they were so good that we ate the whole plate. In the corners squatted our companions: cats Sharutek and Bubel and dog Lusia. They are also from here – they just came one day, attracted by good energy.

“Luck found for us this farm in the heart of Kashubia," says Kasia.

The village of Pierszczewko, tucked in a gentle valley between two glacial lakes, is actually the very center of Kashubian Switzerland – a picturesque land in northern Poland not far from the sea and Gdańsk.

The essence of this land is slowness. Horses graze in the meadows, the coastal reeds hum, bent by gusts of wind – also slow, infrequent and not too insistent, the pine forests on the hills smell of chanterelles, which a day later land in the frying pan next to the eggs from the henhouse next door.

The fascinating beauty of this corner of Poland is not "genetically modified" at all, although the local Kashubians have legends that help understand it a little better.

Such as the one in which Kashubia was to be created at the very end of the act of creation, from the best leftovers God had left in sacks. He is said to have been smiling at the end, looking at his creation.

The farm that Kasia and Michał found has a long history. The village itself has been on the maps for 800 years; the historic barn dates back to the 18th century. “I have the impression that only happy souls lived here, and the same is true for us,” Kasia says. In the farm they took over, they have decorated the Stare Gospodarstwo guesthouse with great taste and dedication, where guests are treated like close friends. The cozy rooms are located in the attic, under whitewashed original structural beams and windows that open to the starry night sky.

Kasia and Michał share advice and a good joke with their guests, but most importantly, delicious and regional food.

“We have about 1.5 acres of sensuality here at the Old Farm. The rocking of a hammock, the buzzing of bees, an apple tree in bloom, a garden with a deck chair, an evening chill, a warming banya and a sauna. Then maybe a campfire, maybe a local beer, again hammock, bed, stars,” adds our hostess.

The kitchen is a huge passion for Kasia, who immediately after moving to Pierszczewko filled all the spaces still available with gardens where fresh herbs grow in the summer. In the morning, breakfast baskets with bread from a neighbor and homemade butter, cheese and milk from an innkeeper two villages away land on the tables.

Cheese, by the way, is material for a separate story - nowhere in Poland is it made with such passion and tastes as good as in Kashubia.

The farms described here, Osada Burego Misia or Kaszubska Koza, are places where no cheese will taste the same to you after visiting. For the remaining meals, Kasia and Michał suggest places they have checked out. One of them – the popular fish fryer near Ostrzyce will be reached from here… by canoe.

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