"Lard like butter, you won't find it anywhere else." How a family from a Slutsk village turned their household into a brand
For the heroes of the viral video featuring a huge slab of lard from Lyadna village, Slutsk district, the most important thing is to salt the lard so that it melts in your mouth.
From a viral video to popular love
In the Belarusian segment of the internet, one video made them famous: a piece of lard measuring one meter sixty by fifty-five centimeters. However, behind this image lies a whole family history that began long before the advent of social networks.
A family business spanning decades
Katsia and Roma are the very producers from Slutsk who turned their parents' household into the recognizable brand "Prokhar Miasa" (Prokhar Meat). Their families have been farming for over forty years. Previously, they kept livestock for themselves, then started selling, and today the younger generation has taken over processing, writes "Minskaya Prauda" (Minsk Truth).
"Roma and I run the entire pig farm together: from raising to butchering. Of course, our parents help, both his and mine, and my brother and sister also help. This is all our common family business," says Katsia.
Natural taste without "secret ingredients"
The family business's assortment was shaped by customer requests. As Katsia recalls, people once felt uncomfortable buying ready-made sausages; they preferred to make them themselves. But times have changed, and the desire to find that same "homemade taste" has taken its place.
"Now the times are different. And everyone, I understand, has a lot of work and no time to deal with this. It's easier to buy ready-made products," she explains. Thus, dry sausages, saltisons (brawn), polendvitsa (cured pork loin), and, of course, lard appeared in their assortment. The ingredients for them are the simplest: garlic and dill from their own garden, their own spices.
"We have no secret. People have simply become so unaccustomed to natural taste that for them, this taste itself is the main secret of our production," says Katsia.
They don't go to Minsk for customers – it's too far, and there are too many competitors. All their products are sold at the Slutsk market or simply from their farmyard.
A story that changed their approach to sales
But there is one story that changed their approach to sales. One day, an elderly man from Vitebsk, who longed for his village childhood, asked to have some lard sent to him by mail. Katsia initially hesitated but still packed the best piece.
"I took the best, most beautiful piece we had, rubbed it with spices and garlic, wrapped it all in film, packed it in a box, and sent it to him by mail. When he received it, he called back. It even seemed to me that he was almost crying from that lard. He said: 'Well, this is truly lard like butter, you won't find it anywhere else.' And indeed, it has the rustic taste of childhood, just like my grandmother's," Katsia recalls.
Without chasing markets and scale
A special mention deserves the comparison of their products with world standards. Some bloggers in their reviews have already drawn a parallel between Belarusian polendvitsa and Spanish jamón. Katsia, with a degree in meat processing engineering technology, admits that she knows the technology for producing the famous delicacy. But for now, the priority is to expand the geography of tastes, not production capacities.
"You can't do everything," she explains. "There's a lot of work in the village: mowing, feeding, processing. There's time to roll a polendvitsa, but salting jamón and waiting half a year to a year for it to ripen — that's a completely different story."
But even without jamón, their products have already crossed borders.
"Our products have even been where we haven't. They were taken to Egypt, and to Turkey, even though pork, by the way, is not eaten there. But there are those who have moved, say, to Turkey, our Belarusians or Russians have settled there, and they buy and take it there," Katsia proudly notes.
Holidays instead of advertising
Such an approach – attention to every person – has become the family's hallmark. They don't hire advertising agencies; instead, they organize celebrations for the soul. Last winter, at the Slutsk market, they organized a real morning event: Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost), Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), tasting, songs, and dances. More than thirty people gathered – regular customers for whom a trip to the market became a real event.
"I said: 'Well, let's give away a little sausage stick, do some kind of contest, a raffle. At least we'll have a great time.' More than thirty people gathered. We sang, and danced, and played, and ate, and rested. Oh, it was just wonderful, you know, just for the soul," the protagonist shares her emotions.
The secret of success is in simplicity
In an era of marketing strategies and scaling, the family from Slutsk district proves that the most reliable recipe for success is simple: honest work and a natural product without preservatives, respect, and the ability to see in the customer not just a receipt, but a living person who longs for genuine taste. That's why their lard smells of childhood, and their business continues to grow, remaining as small and cozy in spirit as their native village.
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