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Church members Levi and Mandi Root helped at the dessert table.                                                    Pioneer photo by Deb Bently

North Waseca Lutheran Offers lutefisk dinner

“I like lutefisk,” stated Orlyn Reindel, 86, of Elysian. “I always take two or three servings.”
Reindel and his wife Sarah were among the 300 or so people who dined at the annual lutefisk dinner served at North Waseca Lutheran Church the evening of Sunday, Nov. 17.
Diners were served in three shifts an hour apart beginning at 4 p.m.
According to organizers, dozens of church member volunteers spent three days or more ensuring all the elements of the meal would be ready. On the menu were lutefisk, meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, lefse, and cookies and desserts made by church members. Everyone was also offered a small serving of rommegrot, a rich brown pudding made with whole milk, cream, butter, and cinnamon for flavoring.
Funds raised by the sale of $20 tickets were divided among three causes.  One thousand dollars will be divided between food shelves located in Waseca and Elysian; funds will also support charitable activities of the North Waseca Lutheran Church Men’s Club.
The November meal has been a tradition at the church for the past 36 years, although church member and organizing team member Roy Srp says lutefisk has unquestionably been a staple at the church throughout its 175-year history, given its founding families were nearly all of Norwegian heritage.
Three cooks were given the task of preparing the lutefisk: Duane Johnson, Jim Hanson and Nathan Schultz. Johnson and Hanson have been lutefisk cooks since the annual dinner was started 36 years ago.
Delores (Jackson) Srp is a lifelong member of the church and grew up nearby. She reveals her family’s Christmas Eve lutefisk dinner was always highly anticipated. Her mother, Norma, and great-grandmother Gunile, who lived to be 106, had a special way of preparing it.
Delores and Roy’s daughter, Kim Kaiser, 43, remembers “a lot of fuss at the stove” but admits the greater draw for her and her sister were the meatballs, mashed potatoes, lefse and rommegrot.
Kaiser’s three daughters Sally, 8; Whitney, 10; and Betsy, 12; dined on lutefisk for the first time during the North Waseca event. Sally described the flavor as “kind of ‘blah.’” Whitney said it “tastes like normal fish, except different…more slimy.” Betsy’s assessment is that it “tastes like fish,” but not like the sunfish her family catches and enjoys in the summer. “It’s kind of discolored,” she observed, and pointed out “we could smell it from outside.”
Church pastor Sarah Krolak is in her third year with North Waseca Lutheran. Asked whether she likes the signature dish, she admits “not even a little bit,” then quickly adds since she did not grow up with it, lutefisk is “not in my palate.”
As diners arrived and were asked to wait upstairs in the church until their places at the tables in the basement could be prepared, they were entertained with a rendition of “Sweet Lutefisk,” original words formed to the tune of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”  The words were composed by Roy Srp: He and fellow organizer Greg Thomson provided the vocals and were accompanied by 12-year-old Betsy. Srp suggested those present might want to listen to “Czech Radio,” between Christmas and New Years, when the station plays amateur performers.
In the basement, two dozen or more workers prepared and served food, cleaned and set tables, acted as servers, and provided other support. 
At a randomly selected table were Sarah and Orlyn Ryndahl of Elysian. It was their third time at the annual dinner; Orlyn was enthusiastic about the lutefisk. Sarah, on the other hand, said she took one serving of the fish, but prefers the meatballs, mashed potatoes, and other menu items. She said she was glad to be there to support the fundraising cause. 
Also at the table was Allen Hanson, 70, now a resident of Courtland, but whose hometown is Hanska, a community which he claimed is, “as Norwegian as you can get outside of Norway.” Hanson says he has gone to lutefisk dinners in many locations and used to make a habit of seeking them out. He took a couple of servings of lutefisk and predicted its smell would be in his hair and clothes into Monday.
Retired pastor Dean Wolf, 69, of Mankato, was at the North Waseca dinner for the second time. He said he is acquainted with cook Jim Hanson and is glad to support area food shelves. 
He did not, however, help himself to any lutefisk. He admitted he “never enjoyed the flavor and could barely stand the smell.”
He shared the story, however, of his father, a “full-blood German” who was so fond of lutefisk “when the platter would come to him, he would empty it on his plate,” leaving others at the table to wait for a refill. He laughed heartily about a noon-time lutefisk dinner once held at an area church. So that they could return to work promptly, “businessmen didn’t have to wait to go downstairs,” said Wolf. Even though he was retired and had no time constraints, “My dad would dress in a suit and tie so he didn’t have to wait, either.”
During the dinner, all present were invited to enter a drawing for an “Uff-da” candle scented like lutefisk. Promoter Nathan Schultz circulated among the crowd encouraging folks to take part and invited them to take a “deep whiff” of the smell. “It would be a good gift,” he declared. “It would draw in every cat in the neighborhood!”
 

 

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