Lefse

My heritage is Finnish, but my mother's sister married a full blood Norwegian.  So Lefse has been in the family for years.  I have even made it. My Uncle Gerry  was a librarian for the University of Wisconsin, Madisen.  But his passion was studying the immigration of Norwegians to the United States.  He has written five books about the families that came to America.  I know for a fact that Bemidji families are in the books.  Uncle Gerry was born in Valley City, North Dakota in 1913, the son of a Lutheran Clergymen. As a young boy, he sought to follow in his father's footsteps, but an uncle recognized early on that Gerry had more of the traits of a librarian. Gerry eventually received degrees in history and library science. He worked as a professional librarian for three universities before retiring from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978, where he had been associate director.
Gerry is most well known for his work, Norwegian Immigrants to the United States: A Biographical Directory. For this work, Uncle Gerry was awarded the Knight’s Cross, First Class, Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1978. The Norwegian-American Genealogical Center & Naeseth Library in Madison, Wisconson is named in his honor. Gerry was also the director and chief researcher of the Vesterheim Genealogical Center from 1974 to 1994, and after his death the research chair was named in his honor. Uncle Gerry served as associate director of the libraries of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1948 to 1978. He was also chairman of the Church Council of the American Lutheran Church.  I got kind of carried away about Uncle Gerry when I really started out to write about lefse. He makes me proud and just a small part of me wishes that I was Norwegian too.

It is hard to say when lefse originated. Maybe the Norse God Odin first had it served to the souls of the slain warriors who occupy Valhalla as a way to fortify them for their final battle. That's probably just a folk tale given the fact that the potato was introduced to Norway a little over 250 years ago.

Like Ireland, Norway suffered from the effects of the potato famine in the mid-1800's, which is about the time that many Norwegians came to the United States. They brought their knowledge, griddles, mashers and rolling pins. The result is a delicacy that's part of a special tradition replicated in every Norwegian-American town for more than 150 years. A tradition that you can be part of once again.

This version of Lefse's history was submitted by Jim Berg from Albert Lea, MN.

Now Den, vot you know bout dat....
Did you know that lefsa was invented by the norweigen Vikings...
Von day, dey vent and was going to raid Ireland.....
Vell they got over der, but they couldn't suprise dem
Irish people cause they were making too much noise coming across
the Nort Sea from Norway.
When they got to the shores of Ireland, they tried to land
But couldn't. You see the Irish heard them coming and began
throwing their potatoes at
them darn vikings so dat the cud not land. Vel by golly,
do you know vat. They load that ship with all the potatoes
dat got trowed at dem, pulled out their oars and finally got back
to Norway. When they got there they played aroung with those
potatoes and came up with a bread, and called it LEFSA.
They had a big party that night, day got out that old foul smelling
fish and put it on Lefsa and that is where the Lutefisk Supper vas
born...........My Grate, Grate, Grate, Grate, Granfodder was on that
ship that raided Ireland.
I'm sure glad they brought it to America other wise we would not have
Lutefisk Suppers Today.

My Lena makes the best darn lefsa in Minnesota. Corse I have to help
otherwise she'd eat it all up while she was cooking it and we would not have
any for supper that evening....

I'm sure glad they have Lutefisk Suppers around Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.
My mother Palma, made all the lefsa by herself. They wern't very round,
but then she always said you could not taste the round......
Your Friend.......... Ole