The story behind Jaju Pierogi

Continuing our Jaju’s legacy.

We’re Vanessa and Casey, and we’re the two sisters behind Jaju Pierogi.

Sixty years ago, our Jaju (dziadziu, or grandfather) started a Polish food business with his brothers and sisters in Western Massachusetts—hand-crafting pierogi, golabki, and kielbasa for their community. Fast forward to the ‘90s and you’d find us spending our weekends cutting, stuffing, and sealing pierogi in the back kitchen alongside our elders.

Pierogi was a regular item in our freezers and on our dinner plates, something we took for granted. When we moved to Boston for school and work, pierogi became more difficult to come by and we had to wait for our mom’s deliveries from the family store. Pineapple and cheese pierogi were our favorite - not very traditional, but one of our Jaju’s specials.

Accustomed to buying mass-produced pierogi, friends and roommates started asking, “Hey, where did you get those?”, and we laughed for a while that we should start a pierogi business in Boston. Finally, in 2015, we decided to head to the family store and dust off our grandfather’s recipes. We got to work on the kitchen table, tinkering away and sampling to our friends, before beginning to sell our pierogi at farmers markets in Winter 2016. We named our business Jaju Pierogi as an ode to our family’s story and the inspiration behind our brand.

We’ve grown quite a bit since then, with stores across the country. But you’ll still see us on the road, at events and sampling at stores, meeting both new and veteran pierogi fans and introducing them to Jaju. Not only was our grandfather a Polish work horse, he also created lasting relationships with his customers and community and loved making people smile. One of our favorite parts about our business is carrying on his legacy and sharing that same enthusiasm for both business and personal connection.

Make sure to check out our store locator, or drop us a line below! We’d love to hear from you, whether it’s a simple ‘hello’, or an idea or suggestion. We hope to see you out there!