POULSBO — While Little Norway has stretched beyond its years as a slumbering fishing village and has grasped the cusp of becoming a bedroom community, its Scandinavian roots still run deep.

While mayors, city councils and businesses have come and gone since 1908, when Poulsbo officially became a city, the First Lutheran lutefisk dinner hasn’t missed a beat since it got its start in 1912. It will be 93 years strong today as potatoes, lefse, Norwegian meatballs with gravy and of course, lutefisk are served.

“My grandmother used to help cure the fish back in the early days when a group from the church used to come early and do it,” recalled Gordy Stenman as he sold tickets to the event Thursday afternoon.

In addition to helping cure the fish for the tasty delicacy, his grandmother specialized in making lefse, a skill that has now touched five generations, Stenman said.

“My grandmother was a fantastic lefse-maker, my mother was, my wife is, our daughter is and our granddaughter is, too,” he said with a grin.

While the women in his family have become well-versed in the potato bread, Stenman’s duties for the event are similar but instead of rolling out potato flour, he cuts the potatoes in halves for the hundreds of expected patrons.

“This will be my 43rd year cooking potatoes and I’ll put my first batch on at 8 a.m.,” he said, noting that 600 pounds of spuds are expected to be prepared for today’s event.

Those duties were passed on to him by Captain and Julia Thorsen who had handled those responsibilities for several years previously, he said.

“They decided they were ready to retire and they had me work with them the first year and then they retired,” he explained.

Even though the first meals aren’t served until 11:20 a.m., the potatoes will be steaming hot, he said.

“When they’re done, they’re well-drained and held steaming hot for about two hours,” he said, noting that he takes pride in keeping the potato halves together. “It all depends on the potato, because sometimes they turn to mush.”

Even though the potatoes may not stay whole, one thing has remained constant throughout the years, he said.

“It’s a lot of fun and it’s fellowship for people because we have three services and we don’t see much of each other otherwise,” he said, noting that several of the founders’ families remain involved in the event.

Technology also plays a role in the preparations for the annual event, which begin just before the first of the year, he said.

“We start getting e-mails around the first of the year and e-mail sure has saved us a lot of meeting time,” he said.