Specialty coffee in Milanowek

Stanisława and Henryk Witaczek founded the Central Experimental Silk Station here in 1924 and sent mulberry seedlings out across the country — by the 1930s some 2,400 silkworm farms were up and running. The Ministry of Transport ordered railway embankments planted with mulberry hedges: snow protection for the tracks and, incidentally, free feed for the crossing keepers, who kept caterpillars at home. The looms here turned out scarves, jacquard ties and the first Polish parachute fabric for the army; during the occupation the same factory made mercury fulminate for grenade detonators. A silver silkworm sat in the town's coat of arms until 1997, when the council swapped it for an oak leaf.