Dec. 14--Standing beside shelves stacked high with kitchen supplies, Julie Spilde explained that home cooks need a lot of stuff if they're going to make lefse, a thin potato pancake from Norway.
"You have to have the iron, which is a big, flat, round skillet that has to get really hot," the owner of Decorah's Ace Kitchen Place explained.
Her list went on and on. It included a pastry board, rolling pin, towels and a wooden turner to move the lefse from the board to the skillet. She pointed with pride to the maple turners with burled handles that her husband, Steve, makes by hand.
When asked why she stocks such an unusual selection of goods, Spilde was quick to answer.
"It's mandatory in Decorah," she said, only half-jokingly.
Although Decorah was settled first by English immigrants, the town is best known for its Norwegian heritage. Along with Spilde's kitchen store, the main drag of Water Street is home to Viking State Bank, Norwegian Mutual Insurance and KVIK Radio.
At Ruby's Restaurant, visitors can enjoy dishes such as Norwegian meatballs, pickled herring and, of course, lefse. But unless they arrive at lunchtime, their first and principal stop should be Vesterheim: The National Norwegian-American Museum Heritage Center.
As President-CEO Chris Johnson pointed out, Vesterheim is the world's largest museum dedicated to a single group of immigrants. The name says it all; translated, it means "western home."
Inside the four-story building, the immigrants' tale begins as guests gaze at the TradeWind, the 25-foot sailboat in which Harald and Hans Hamran sailed from Norway to America in 1933. While smaller than the ships that carried passengers nearly a century earlier, the boat is emblematic of the difficult journeys faced by those who set sail for the New World.
The log cabin on the museum's second floor continues the theme. Through many a blizzard and thunderstorm, the one-room cabin, made from a single white pine, provided shelter to 19th-century settlers.
Visitors also ogle displays of intricate weavings and wood carvings. The largest of the latter, a church altar carved by immigrant Lars Christenson, is the stunning centerpiece of a replica chapel, complete with stone walls and wooden pews.
Visitors shouldn't miss the opportunity to stroll through the museum's Open Air Division. Stretching for two city blocks, it contains more than a dozen historic buildings including a Lutheran church, schoolhouse and mill. The Egge-Koren House is one of the authentic homes.
"Elisabeth and Vilhelm Koren came to Winneshiek County in the early 1850s," Johnson said. "He was the first Norwegian minister who lived and served this side of the Mississippi River."
The museum is so impressive that members of Norway's royal family have visited on several occasions. In November 1987, King Olav V braved an ice storm to travel from Minneapolis to Decorah.
"He loved this place so much that he hired a snowplow (and) came down here very slowly," Charlie Langton recalled. Langton, the museum's publications editor, met the monarch on two occasions.
Something that sets Vesterheim apart is the wealth of classes taught at its Folk Art School. Sixty classes in crafts ranging from knife-making to rosemaling to wool spinning are scheduled for 2016.
Rosemaling is the traditional Norwegian art of painting floral designs on otherwise plain surfaces. Over three days in October, teacher Lois Mueller guided 14 students as they applied layers of paint to wooden boxes.
"Some people would call it a document box," she said. "Others refer to it as a Bible box. ...That is where they would store the family Bible with all the history of the family."
The Rev. Richard Flom, an Orthodox Church of America priest, traveled to Decorah from Plymouth, Minn., with his wife and grandson to participate.
"I'm using the Telemark style of rosemaling," he explained. "I will use it in our home (as) a place of reverence and dedication."
The Folk Art School will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016. On the faculty are several instructors who travel from Norway year after year.
For visitors who don't have time to attend a course on making cake or cookies, owner Jo Olson of Ruby's Restaurant is happy to do the work in her cafe's kitchen.
"I make all the sweet soup. I do the kringla and the rommegrot," she said, referring, respectively, to a type of cookie and a porridge. "I do the lefse, but Scott (her stepson) boils the potatoes and rices them."
A few doors down, Julie Spilde enjoys explaining all the effort that goes into making lefse.
"You have to roll that potato-based mixture very fine ... almost like a piece of paper," she began. "You have to be able to read through (it) the letters on your pastry board. Then you know you have it thin enough to go on your iron."
It can be tricky. "You set it on the iron for just a few seconds, flip it over and do the other side. Then it goes on a series of towels ... so it kind of steams itself and makes it really soft."
Spilde said the pancake is worth all the effort.
"But I do brown sugar. I don't do the traditional white sugar. A little butter and brown sugar, and yum, it's really good," she concluded.
Jay Jones is a freelance reporter.
If you go
Vesterheim (502 W. Water St., Decorah; 563-382-9681; www.vesterheim.org) is open year-round. The Open Air Division, however, is only open May to October. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for ages 7-18.
Ace Kitchen Place (106 E. Water St., Decorah; 563-382-3544; www.acekitchenplace.com) and Ruby's Restaurant (120 E. Water St., Decorah; no website) are also open all year.
For area information, contact the Winneshiek County Convention Visitors Bureau (507 W. Water St., Decorah; 563-382-2023; www.visitdecorah.com).
