POULSBO — A news brief in the Feb. 7, 1913 Kitsap County Herald (now the North Kitsap Herald) reads: “A ‘ludefisk’ supper will be served by the Fordefjord Ladies’ Aid on Friday evening, Feb. 21, beginning at 6 o’clock.”

Ninety years later, a lot has changed but the spirit remains the same.

“It’s larger. We have a new kitchen and new dining hall but otherwise I think everything has stayed the same,” commented long-time First Lutheran Lutefisk Dinner volunteer Pat Edgren.

The 90th annual First Lutheran Church Lutefisk Dinner will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. Reaching this milestone has been a labor of love and heritage for many people, some of whom still remember some of its humble beginnings.

A $26.80 profit

There are no official counts available for the 1913 lutefisk dinner, organized by Mrs. A. Thompson, Mrs. Sonju, Mrs. Torgeson and Mrs. Bjermeland, but records show organizers dubbed it “a huge success.” A profit of $26.80 was earned at the congregation-only dinner and a news item noted: “It is planned to make this an annual affair, perhaps even to open it to the public in the future when our cooking facilities are improved.”

Margaret Smalaaden was born in Poulsbo just seven years after the first lutefisk dinner. She says she can’t remember how long she’s been coming to the event but has vivid memories of going to them as a child. Early dinners were always coupled with a craft bazaar and a carnival for the children.

“I remember they had the little church hall then and there was always a bazaar upstairs,” Smalaaden recalled. “My dad would always come home with a new quilt from the bazaar.”

Today, between 1,200 and 1,500 guests gather in the church’s center it enjoy some of the 2,000 pieces of lefse, 2,000 pounds of lutefisk, 600 pounds of meatballs and more than 200 dozen Norwegian cookies that are prepared. They’ve never run out of food, but one year volunteers recall about 1,500 people stretched their energy and resources to the limits.

“One year, we were written up in the Seattle Times and I do remember that year because a lot of people came that year and they didn’t tell us,” remembered Gordon Stenman, who has cooked the potatoes for the dinner for 40 years. “When they start coming in bus loads, it gets a little frustrating.”

Packed in like Sardines

Until the dedication of the First Lutheran Christian Education Center in 1988-89, lutefisk dinners were held in the social hall, which holds about 180 people. The ‘fisk was in high demand in Little Norway and so was the annual dinner.

“I remember when I was a little girl, my dad would go over at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. and buy his tickets because if you didn’t get right in there you could be waiting two or three hours and hoping they don’t run out of lutefisk,” recalled Lutefisk Dinner organizer Margene Smalaaden, who grew up attending the church.

“We could get 180 people in there and if you think sardines in a can are tight you haven’t seen anything — and these poor girls who had to serve, I don’t know how they did it,” said dinner greeter Earl Hanson. “Then the fire department cut it from 180 to 120 and it made a big difference. But I’ll tell you when you have a church full of people who are ready to eat lutefisk, what a headache I had. I was called every name in the book.”

And amenities for the worker bees were also pretty bare-boned. Meatballs were fried on gas stoves in big, cast-iron pans; coffee was made in giant copper boilers; and the lutefisk was cut and cooked in an outdoor lean-to built by Obert Smalaaden, which is still there.

“It was so funny in the old hall if you could have seen us, of course we had potatoes and meatballs and lutefisk and you had to learn when to move otherwise you couldn’t get anywhere,” recalled Norma Hanson, who grew up in the church and brought Earl into the fold in 1953. “The first year we went to the Christian Center, Gordon Stenman said to me, ‘I don’t know how to work’ because there was so much room. But we got used to it and now it’s really nice.”

“I don’t know how we cooked everything,” Earl Hanson added. “We had roasters all over the church, even in the Sunday School rooms.”

•A new space, a new generation

A bigger kitchen and bigger seating area with adjacent area to wait were added with First Lutheran’s Christian Education Center and gym.

A covered area off the kitchen door, affectionately know as the bomb shelter, was quickly claimed by the lutefisk crew as its cutting and cooking area for the codfish delight.

Ole Serwold had owned the original stove used to cook the lutefisk and one year gave it to someone in Stanwood. The church still had access to the heating implement, but each year had to drive to Stanwood to pick it up — until a major find one year.

Pastor Peter Tengesdal asked Earl Hanson to help him clean out the church basement one day and they came across the top of an old propane stove.

“Nobody knows where it came from, it was way back in the corner and covered with stuff and I said, ‘Pete, we need our own stove. We need a stove to cook the lutefisk,’” Earl Hanson relayed.

A group of First Lutheran men built that stove into the cooking implement and paid Swanlund Sheet Metal $600 to make a stainless steel pan, both of which are still used today.

And as the size and location of the dinner have changed over the years, so has the face of the event. Volunteers count among themselves old timers, neophytes and even some second and third generation helpers.

Edgren’s mother-in-law chaired the event years ago, her husband Loyal was a lutefisk cook and he later brought son Brian into the lutefisk fold. Brian has said he looks forward to someday having his children be part of it as well.

“But they don’t know it yet,” she said with a chuckle.

In 1913, Poulsbo was a predominantly Norwegian town. In fact, Norwegian was the predominant language in the city until after World War II. Today, Hanson said he thinks the Norwegian tradition lives on but in the hearts of people from a variety of backgrounds.

“I enjoy it because you meet so many people from all walks of life and I still say there are still more non-Norwegians that eat lutefisk than there are Norwegians,” Hanson said. “You get all races, all nationalities. They come from all over. I would venture to guess we’ve had people from every state in the union.”By CARRINA STANTON

Staff Writer

POULSBO — A news brief in the Feb. 7, 1913 Kitsap County Herald (now the North Kitsap Herald) reads: “A ‘ludefisk’ supper will be served by the Fordefjord Ladies’ Aid on Friday evening, Feb. 21, beginning at 6 o’clock.”

Ninety years later, a lot has changed but the spirit remains the same.

“It’s larger. We have a new kitchen and new dining hall but otherwise I think everything has stayed the same,” commented long-time First Lutheran Lutefisk Dinner volunteer Pat Edgren.

The 90th annual First Lutheran Church Lutefisk Dinner will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. Reaching this milestone has been a labor of love and heritage for many people, some of whom still remember some of its humble beginnings.

A $26.80 profit

There are no official counts available for the 1913 lutefisk dinner, organized by Mrs. A. Thompson, Mrs. Sonju, Mrs. Torgeson and Mrs. Bjermeland, but records show organizers dubbed it “a huge success.” A profit of $26.80 was earned at the congregation-only dinner and a news item noted: “It is planned to make this an annual affair, perhaps even to open it to the public in the future when our cooking facilities are improved.”

Margaret Smalaaden was born in Poulsbo just seven years after the first lutefisk dinner. She says she can’t remember how long she’s been coming to the event but has vivid memories of going to them as a child. Early dinners were always coupled with a craft bazaar and a carnival for the children.

“I remember they had the little church hall then and there was always a bazaar upstairs,” Smalaaden recalled. “My dad would always come home with a new quilt from the bazaar.”

Today, between 1,200 and 1,500 guests gather in the church’s center it enjoy some of the 2,000 pieces of lefse, 2,000 pounds of lutefisk, 600 pounds of meatballs and more than 200 dozen Norwegian cookies that are prepared. They’ve never run out of food, but one year volunteers recall about 1,500 people stretched their energy and resources to the limits.

“One year, we were written up in the Seattle Times and I do remember that year because a lot of people came that year and they didn’t tell us,” remembered Gordon Stenman, who has cooked the potatoes for the dinner for 40 years. “When they start coming in bus loads, it gets a little frustrating.”

Packed in like Sardines

Until the dedication of the First Lutheran Christian Education Center in 1988-89, lutefisk dinners were held in the social hall, which holds about 180 people. The ‘fisk was in high demand in Little Norway and so was the annual dinner.

“I remember when I was a little girl, my dad would go over at 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. and buy his tickets because if you didn’t get right in there you could be waiting two or three hours and hoping they don’t run out of lutefisk,” recalled Lutefisk Dinner organizer Margene Smalaaden, who grew up attending the church.

“We could get 180 people in there and if you think sardines in a can are tight you haven’t seen anything — and these poor girls who had to serve, I don’t know how they did it,” said dinner greeter Earl Hanson. “Then the fire department cut it from 180 to 120 and it made a big difference. But I’ll tell you when you have a church full of people who are ready to eat lutefisk, what a headache I had. I was called every name in the book.”

And amenities for the worker bees were also pretty bare-boned. Meatballs were fried on gas stoves in big, cast-iron pans; coffee was made in giant copper boilers; and the lutefisk was cut and cooked in an outdoor lean-to built by Obert Smalaaden, which is still there.

“It was so funny in the old hall if you could have seen us, of course we had potatoes and meatballs and lutefisk and you had to learn when to move otherwise you couldn’t get anywhere,” recalled Norma Hanson, who grew up in the church and brought Earl into the fold in 1953. “The first year we went to the Christian Center, Gordon Stenman said to me, ‘I don’t know how to work’ because there was so much room. But we got used to it and now it’s really nice.”

“I don’t know how we cooked everything,” Earl Hanson added. “We had roasters all over the church, even in the Sunday School rooms.”

•A new space, a new generation

A bigger kitchen and bigger seating area with adjacent area to wait were added with First Lutheran’s Christian Education Center and gym.

A covered area off the kitchen door, affectionately know as the bomb shelter, was quickly claimed by the lutefisk crew as its cutting and cooking area for the codfish delight.

Ole Serwold had owned the original stove used to cook the lutefisk and one year gave it to someone in Stanwood. The church still had access to the heating implement, but each year had to drive to Stanwood to pick it up — until a major find one year.

Pastor Peter Tengesdal asked Earl Hanson to help him clean out the church basement one day and they came across the top of an old propane stove.

“Nobody knows where it came from, it was way back in the corner and covered with stuff and I said, ‘Pete, we need our own stove. We need a stove to cook the lutefisk,’” Earl Hanson relayed.

A group of First Lutheran men built that stove into the cooking implement and paid Swanlund Sheet Metal $600 to make a stainless steel pan, both of which are still used today.

And as the size and location of the dinner have changed over the years, so has the face of the event. Volunteers count among themselves old timers, neophytes and even some second and third generation helpers.

Edgren’s mother-in-law chaired the event years ago, her husband Loyal was a lutefisk cook and he later brought son Brian into the lutefisk fold. Brian has said he looks forward to someday having his children be part of it as well.

“But they don’t know it yet,” she said with a chuckle.

In 1913, Poulsbo was a predominantly Norwegian town. In fact, Norwegian was the predominant language in the city until after World War II. Today, Hanson said he thinks the Norwegian tradition lives on but in the hearts of people from a variety of backgrounds.

“I enjoy it because you meet so many people from all walks of life and I still say there are still more non-Norwegians that eat lutefisk than there are Norwegians,” Hanson said. “You get all races, all nationalities. They come from all over. I would venture to guess we’ve had people from every state in the union.”