Last call for lefse! Homemade — like grandma's — sold at a deer stand in Evansville
For a few hours on Saturdays in November and December, the Englund family’s homemade lefse is available for $6 at a deer stand in Evansville. And the Norwegian delicacy that will grace countless Minnesota dinner tables on Christmas sells out quickly.
“I could write a book on the different people that come to the lefse stand,” Kim Englund told MPR News. She says people have come up from the Twin Cities, from South Dakota and even a pair of men from Norway.
Englund goes through 20 pounds of russet potatoes each night making lefse with her husband, Casey, and kids. Apparently, she’s a one-dish chef and “can’t cook anything else.”
She’s busy. On top of the baking, Englund has a full-time job as an associate accountant for a nonprofit, serves as the clerk for Lund Township and runs a small family farm.
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The lefse drive-thru — an uninsulated, roughly 8-by-8-foot, barn-red deer stand with a sliding window and some shelves — was born out of the pandemic. Before 2020, Englund lovingly sold her lefse at vendor shows, which were shut down during COVID-19 to stop the spread.
“I thought ‘how are we going to get all these lefse orders to the buyers.’”
Englund took inspiration from restaurants still operating drive-thrus. She and her husband plopped their son’s deer stand at the end of their driveway with the intention of serving the locals lefse. All it took was one visitor’s Facebook post for the stand to take off and expand its reach far beyond the boonies. Now she permanently uses her brother-in-law’s stand, situated off Douglas County Road 1, two miles north of Evansville proper.
“People like to look inside like it’s fancy. It’s not,” she said.
Rain, blizzard or sunshine, she or her son Conway will be out there until the three-packs of frozen lefse rounds are gone, keeping warm with a small propane heater. A fan of foraging, Englund also sells treats like homemade honey butter, jelly and jalapeno cowboy candy.
The usual response Englund hears is customers saying their grandmas made lefse. She tells those folks: “Do you know what, it's your turn, you have to learn,” she said. “It's kind of like one of the dying arts and I really need people to step up and learn right now. And it’s time for it to make a comeback.”
Englund learned how to make lefse with both of her grandmothers and they served the dish year-round. She says she started baking in earnest 10 years ago. Now, to fulfill production, the craft is again a family affair. That means 20 pounds of lefse after work, school and homework on weeknights, a break on Saturday to operate the stand, but the family is back to baking after church on Sundays.
Toppings for the lefse vary greatly. Englund prefers butter, sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Customers have told her they go butter only or use brown sugar. Some, however, have essentially invented a Norwegian taco.
“You also have those that will eat it with like roast beef, and more mashed potatoes or cranberry sauce in it. There’s so many different ideas. And I love that it’s so versatile,” she said.
The Englund’s lefse stand’s last day of the season is Saturday. They’ll be open from 10 a.m. to noon.
