He prefers to mix bigos than in politics

Ten years ago, Sebastian Florek took part in Big Brother’s first edition. After a few months he was already home in the Countryside. He was a SLD deputy. Today he cultivates the land, has a willow plantation and runs an agritourism farm. Former MP had two sons: Maciek and Nicholas. One goes to primary school and the other to kindergarten.
Now in Willow Valley

To Florka is driving a gravel road. Almost a kilometer through the forest. When the man gets there, he regrets leaving. Willow Valley, because he called this place the host, soaked man silence, calm and charm. No wonder Florek says he does not intend to move anywhere. Why Willow Valley? “Because it’s a valley, and there are willows around,” he explains.

And the name was accepted. In the area the houses grow like mushrooms after the rain. And all the inhabitants say that they are from the Willow Valley.

Is not he lacking the big city bustle? Will not pull him to politics, to the Warsaw salons? Is there a lack of television cameras, a crowd of photojournalists? – At the village for politics? I do not go there anymore – he shakes his head.

 
Why did he take part in a reality show in the first edition of Big Brother? The plan was simple: to enter politics later – he explains. With other participants in the program, there is no contact for a long time.
Today he says he has already given up politics. – life is too short to waste time on it. I tried how it tastes and that’s enough for me – it suddenly tears up from the chair. – I’m sorry, but I have to stir bigos – he explains. A long weekend is coming, so guests from Poland will come. Recently, Florek rebuilt the barn. He made rooms for agrotourism lovers here. When they arrive, they will get to eat, among other things, a bigos, which the host himself has hand-made. It will be with white sausage. Florek likes to cook if – as he says – he only has time.

The economy absorbs it completely. It has almost three hundred hectares of land. There is something to work with, but Florek is an atypical farmer who breaks up in the pale dawn and rushes to the cowshed. – I do not have cows – Florek. – Although I had a lot recently. Besides, a huge herd of cows was one of his dreams, still at school. Buddies wanted to do great careers somewhere in the capital, and he dreamed of having a home in the countryside and 200 cattle.

From the sawmill to the barn

Florek tried everything. He had pigs, cattle and horses. Finally, he has now converted the barn into agrotourism.
– This is an additional activity – he says. – green energy, biomass. When he was an MP, he was already telling about the cultivation of energetic willow. Then he read in the papers that it was some political pear on a willow.
– Pears? – asks Florek, squatting on a large prism of willow branches. – It’s business. Heat plants take wood chips from me. Several dozen meters further, a huge willow field stretches. And its seven-meter highlands resemble more the Amazon jungle than the Polish wheat fields.
The silence is suddenly interrupted by the noise coming from the land rover engine, which friend Florka is leaving.
– It’s nothing, it’s a wedge belt – the host returns calmly to the conversation. He drives a roadster himself. Yes, he likes spangles? – Cars do not spin me at all – he says – It’s just the prose of living away from the asphalt. In winter, no other car can handle it.

The first vacation in Cuba

Five years ago, Florek went on his first holiday in life. And it’s straight to Cuba. Why did he choose Kuba? For Castro, for cigars? – I guess out of curiosity – he says.
He spent a month on the island. He rented a car and rode from town to town. He met great people. “The ordinary Cubans who try to live normally despite the regime,” he says.
– Many dream about the TV. A huge, huge box that once stood in our homes. You can buy them in special stores, such as our old peweks.
– There is a thousand euros for the TV.

Florek fell in love with Cuba. He was already there twice. Maybe that’s why, from the loudspeakers in the cafeteria, where guests eat meals, Latin rhythms are heard.

He has recently made films. He became a film producer.
– It’s a historical and documentary fillm – he explains. – He tells Henryk Zbierzchowski, who lived and worked in Lviv.
It’s an interesting character. He had an amazing life. He drank vodka all his life, and yet he was a great poet, prose writer, bard of Lviv. This film wants to interest TV stations. For now, no effect.
The first film has not been sold yet, and Florek is already thinking about the next production. In September he is going to Crimea
– We want to make a film about Golitsyn, the creator of Russian champagne. His mother was Polish
What will happen, how will the films reach the proverbial shelf? – It’s difficult – he answers. – Not for the money, and we are doing it for fun.

Florek likes people smiling. And he tries to go through life with a smile. Even if there are no special reasons to be happy. He believes that good days will come back someday.

Andrzej Mielnicki “Gazeta Olsztyńska”