Two weeks remain until the 26th election for the Most Beautiful Croatian Rural Woman. The final event will take place on 3 October, with 21 candidates competing for the title. Among them are two representatives from Lika-Senj County.
The project has, for more than two decades, been honouring women who, through their work, knowledge and dedication, preserve life in the Croatian countryside. The candidates present their farms, families and the environments from which they come, and it is this diversity that each year attracts public attention.
One of the representatives from Lika is Zdenka Sertić, who lives with her family in Jezerani, surrounded by the beauty of the Črnač field. Her husband and she created their farm with their own hands, starting from scratch. Today they manage 20 hectares of land and look after 14 cows, 160 sheep and 25 bee colonies. The family is also involved in timber processing and holds a licence from the Croatian Forests to provide services.
Zdenka Sertić is the mother of three children and a proud grandmother, and she considers her family to be her greatest success. She told Lika Club that it is her family that gives her strength: her husband Darko, her children Sanja, Tanja and Adrian, and her grandchildren Nicol, Franka and Emili. She also mentioned her son-in-law Tomi, who steps in whenever something urgent needs to be done, and her brother-in-law Mila, who is of great help, although he is somewhat frail. "Children are our greatest wealth and they give us the strength to work and move forward," said Sertić.
The other candidate from the region is Ana-Marija Sertić from Bukovac Perišićki. By profession she is a nursery teacher, a mother of one, and her family is soon to grow by one more member. Her love for nature, animals and the rural way of life has accompanied her since childhood, spent with her grandparents in Brinje.
After working in a nursery in Gospić, Ana-Marija Sertić, together with her partner, established a family farm in 2021, specialising in the breeding of buša, a native Croatian breed of cattle. Today they manage 25 hectares of land and look after 18 head of buša cattle, 12 calves, seven fat steers, two sheep and two goats. She successfully completed training in the breeding of buša cattle, organised by the advisory service, and actively participates in the work of the family farm, while with her family she continues to invest in the development of the farm.
For Lika Club, she said that it is her partner and their son Mile who give her strength the most. "Everything we invest in our work additionally contributes to the better life and future of our son," she said. Mile is growing up surrounded by nature and animals, and already shows a great love for the rural way of life. "When I see how much Mile loves animals and how much time he spends with them, it drives me to have more of that," said Ana-Marija Serti, adding that her son is slowly showing interest in farming and in his own pets.
