Posted on 12/19/2007 4:19:23 PM PST by SJackson
GALESVILLE - Phyllis Wood's farmhouse basement could pass for Santa's workshop this time of year.
North of Galesville in Trempealeau County, the four "Lefse Ladies" diligently and efficiently roll and cook 600 to 900 lefse rounds a day as Christmas approaches. Flour dusts their noses as they work from dawn to well past dusk six days a week.
Throughout the Midwest, enclaves of Norwegian descendents have made lefse ubiquitous. It's sold in stores, offered in restaurants and is a staple of church suppers. Mrs. Wood, however, has carved her lefse niche by being particular about the process and ingredients. It's kept her in business for 40 years.
The ladies' cooking mesmerizes. Like a ballet troupe, they make it look easy and artful.
Each woman plays her role. Mrs. Wood and her sister Norma Conrad of Blair stand side by side, rolling rounds of mixed mashed potatoes, flour, salt and margarine into paper-thin lefse. They twirl the raw product around a flat stick and unroll it onto a dry griddle.
Dolores Bockenhauer of Galesville - the oldest Lefse Lady at 79 - shifts from foot to foot at the griddle. Mrs. Bockenhauer bakes several rounds at once, somehow remembering which ones need turning or removing.
"You've got to pick them up soon but you can't pick them up too soon," Mrs. Bockenhauer said.
She flips each round three times on the 500-degree griddle.
"If they don't bake fast, they get dry and hard," Mrs. Wood said.
None of the rolling or baking would happen without Alice Stuhr of Melrose, who staffs the mixer. She scoops mashed potatoes mixed with margarine into a Hobart mixer, adding flour and salt.
"A lot of people use oil, but I don't like the taste of it," Mrs. Wood said. She also refuses to use preservatives.
Mrs. Stuhr rolls the lefse into logs, cutting it into cookie-size rounds that she flattens and places on trays.
Mrs. Wood's husband, Ralph, peels potatoes at night. The women use about 150 pounds a day.
"It's hard to get nice potatoes," Mrs. Wood said. She prefers Jolivette Family Farms in West Salem.
The women make lefse to order so it's fresh. A waiting list is common, especially as the team has scaled back its production. They used to make 1,200 lefse a day.
"We don't always push ourselves like that anymore because we're getting too old," Mrs. Wood said.
After baking, the ladies cool lefse for three to four hours on racks in a room with an open window. Afterward, the ladies go through the rounds one by one, dusting off excess flour. They fold the rounds into triangles and wrap them in packages of three or a dozen. Then they affix a label. Mrs. Wood's business is state-licensed - one of few in the area, she said.
The lefse business lasts from Labor Day to Easter, reaching fever pitch between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
Four decades of lefse-baking hasn't turned Mrs. Wood off the tortilla-like treat.
"The way I like it the very, very best is when you have it with a whole meal," she said.
Her five children, however, won't touch it. Nor will Mrs. Conrad. She's even been turned off mashed potatoes.
But customers love it. Orders of 20 dozen aren't out of the ordinary. The ladies also bake for church suppers. Piggly Wiggly in Galesville and Festival Foods in Holmen sell the lefse.
"It's the best around. It's just like the way my mother used to make it. It's the real stuff," said Joyce Johnson, who owns Common Market, a gourmet and health food store in Galesville.
The ladies don't stop at lefse, making other Norwegian treats such as rosettes, sandbakkels and flat bread.
Mrs. Wood's other love is donuts. If she didn't make lefse, she'd open a donut shop, she said.
"They're just plain, old-fashioned fry cakes," she said of her donuts. She's squeezing in orders for 50 dozen this Christmas.
Despite the long days, the women enjoy each other's company.
Mrs. Wood said, "We have a lot of fun down here. We discuss everything from ... "
"Cadavers," Mrs. Conrad filled in with a giggle.
More serious discussions relate to their church-circle lessons, books and family.
"Some days we get the giggles so bad we can hardly stand it," Mrs. Wood said.
And like Santa's elves, Mrs. Wood is in business to make people happy. The business's profits are slim anyway, she said.
The pleasure comes from hearing a customer say her lefse tastes just like grandma's, she said.
Megan Parker may be reached at (800) 236-4004, ext. 3867 or megan.parker@ecpc.com.
Mm...wish I could be there!
I’ve never personally tasted Lefse, nor Lutefisk... Don’t know if I’ll ever be brave enough for the Lutefisk, but Lefse sounds yummy (now that I know what it is! LOL).
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