Plum Preserves from Strzelce – Taste, Quality, Tradition
An interview with Ewa Chabowska, who together with her husband runs a well-known orchard farm and small fruit-processing facility in Strzelce Górne, in Bydgoszcz County.
What do you consider the most innovative aspect of your approach to producing preserves, juices, and jams?
Our farm in Strzelce Górne has existed for over 70 years. I want to emphasize right away that our success is the result of the hard work of the entire family, above all my husband. Our sons, of course, help with the harvests, but it is mainly thanks to Mieczysław’s diligence, creativity, and skills that we are where we are today.
Over the past 37 years, since we have been managing the farm independently, we have focused exclusively on fruit growing. During this time, we introduced machines for harvesting fruit and expanded the machinery used in processing. I believe the real breakthrough was the launch of the fruit-processing facility itself. We started with a single kettle in which we stirred the plum mass by hand; today we have several electric kettles, which means a much smaller workload. We moved from removing pits by hand to using a pitting machine, washers, and filling machines. Our most recent purchases include a jar capper and a device for removing stems from cherries and plums. Previously, we pasteurized jars in a single kettle; now we have several, also electric. When we started, we cooked outdoors in an open kettle; now we have rooms that meet sanitary and epidemiological requirements. All these changes have made it possible to process larger quantities of fruit while maintaining high quality of the final product. And our preserves have a wonderful aroma and consistency. About 320 grams of fresh fruit go into 100 grams of the finished product.
For us, innovation means developing the farm and selling preserves as an additional source of income. In autumn and winter, when there is less work in the orchard, we have time to take part in fairs and markets. Contact with our customers is just as important to us. We produce 30 types of preserves, but customers constantly suggest new flavors—flavors from their childhood.
Ewa Chabowska, Fot. Tomasz Czachorowski/eventphoto dla UMWKP
Which of the awards you have received so far has been the most important confirmation that your chosen direction of production makes sense?
Every award brings us equal joy. We are happy whenever juries appreciate the taste of our preserves, as happened many times at fairs in Minikowo, Poznań, or recently in Bielsko-Biała. We are very proud to have become one of the region’s showcases at the Green Week trade fair in Berlin. Sometimes our customers buy preserves for friends or family and take them to different parts of the world—so at Christmas our jams and preserves reach, for example, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, or Slovakia, and even Bahrain. Later we receive photos, look at a world map, and wonder how many thousands of kilometers our little jars have traveled. Situations like that give us wings!
We devoted a great deal of effort and time to having our sieved cherry preserves entered in 2024 on the List of Traditional Products maintained by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. We found the recipe in my grandmother’s book published in 1921. Back then they were called fruit butter, but today we would not be allowed to use that name.
We have twice received awards for innovation. In 2024, we were awarded the title of Innovative Farmer in the category of retail agricultural trade for innovative solutions in preserve production. In 2023, we won second place in the nationwide competition “The Most Interesting Innovative Solutions in Agriculture,” organized as part of the Forum for Knowledge and Innovation in Agriculture. We also received a distinction in the category of innovation in agriculture in the Agricola – Son of the Soil competition organized by the Kujawsko-Pomorskie regional government, and two weeks ago we returned from the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Fair in Kielce with a distinction in the Orchardist of the Year 2025 competition. When this last award was presented, we were congratulated on having a clear idea for ourselves, the ability to combine tradition with modernity, and care for the environment.
However, the real cherry on top was the “Pearl” award that we received for our sieved cherry preserves in 2024, in the Our Culinary Heritage – Flavors of the Regions competition during the Flavors of the Regions fair.
Our preserves are made exclusively from fruit from our own orchard, with no added sugar—exactly as our parents and grandparents used to make them, although today we use modern technological solutions. That is why the “Pearl” is so important to us. It is not only an award for a specific product, but also recognition of our philosophy of work—patience and respect for nature and tradition.
I should also emphasize that this product was tested by chemists from Nicolaus Copernicus University, and we know that it contains (I have to read this off a piece of paper!) polyphenolic compounds, mainly flavonoids with strong antioxidant properties. So it has health-promoting qualities.
Successes are very important to us. They show that what we do makes sense, that people enjoy our products, and that our work is appreciated.
Ewa Chabowska, Fot. Tomasz Czachorowski/eventphoto dla UMWKP
What made you decide to cooperate with the Nasze Lokalne online store run by the Marshal’s Office–managed Center for Sustainable Development?
I remember the first meetings on this topic, when the project’s assumptions were discussed—the creation of a logistics and exhibition center and the construction of an online platform. For farms like ours, this is a real opportunity for promotion and for reaching new distribution channels that were previously unavailable. And that is exactly what happened. In the age of the internet, even in the agri-food sector, the saying “if you’re not online, you don’t exist” proves true. Thanks to our presence on the Nasze Lokalne platform, we have gained new customers, not only from our region. It is a huge change in scale and a completely new quality of contact with consumers.
Importantly, this cooperation is not limited to sales alone. It is also an opportunity to build a brand. I remember the moment when, in one of the social media posts, the author called me the queen of preserves.
I am constantly coming up with new flavors—recently we added pistachios to our plum preserves. Half-jokingly, we call them Dubai preserves. In winter, when there is more time for planning, I also focus on the visual side of the products: I order colorful lids with flower or parrot motifs. These are small details, but they catch customers’ eyes.
And this is where I see the greatest value of the short food supply chain idea—in combining logistics, the internet, and the authenticity of the producer. Nasze Lokalne provides space not only to sell, but also to grow—to develop ideas and a brand—while remaining faithful to what is local, genuine, and made with heart.
9 February 2026