Crooked Lane Farm Teaches Holiday Traditions with Lefse-making Classes

"We love using this space as a way for people to come together."

COLFAX, N.D. (KVRR) — Lefse-making season is here, which means Crooked Lane Farm is hosting lefse-making classes.

Lefse is a traditional Norwegian flatbread made with potatoes, flour, butter, and milk. This Scandinavian treat is especially popular around Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

A Colfax farmstead offers several lefse making classes to the public.

“Some of the folk classes and traditional things that , the crafting, cooking sorts of things king of have skipped a couple generations. So what this allows us to do is preserve that art form, that cooking art form, and bring people in who now will have plenty of lefse for their holidays ahead,” says Crooked Lane Farm Co-owner, Mary Jo Schmid.

For many participants, lefse-making is a way of beginning the family together. 

“My mom is here and two of my sisters; we just talked about doing it when my family gets together and having us all come out here as a group and do it as a big family activity,” says Bonne Swansen, a participant of the class.

“We came out here in 2019 and did it and then we spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Florida and we brought lefse in our suitcase and then we mailed some lefse to his mom out in Denver. So that was a piece that kind of kept all of us all together even though we weren’t able to spend the holidays all in the same place,” adds Haley Aasved, participant. 

Crooked Lane Farm invites everyone to make lefse, no matter your heritage. 

“I am French and somebody told me Frenchmen can’t make lefse and so I guess I am stubborn and I wanna learn, I want to get good at it. Now the trick is to learn this,” chuckles participant, Cheryl Anderson.

Crooked Lane Farm offers a variety of other classes throughout the year.