If you have to keep busy, you might as well make lefse.
That's the attitude that Larry Brunsvig has this holiday season. Growing up in a Norwegian home, he grew up making lefse.
"We were doing it at home on the farm with a woodburning stove," he said.
Although he's lived in the Madison area since 1970, the 77-year-old man grew up in Irene.
He learned the knack for making lefse from his mother and grandmother, both of whom preferred to burn corncobs in their stove because cobs produced more heat.
"I was always the one who wanted to help in the kitchen, and my sisters would go out and do the chores," Brunsvig said. As a result, he has the knack for making family recipes that his sisters do not have.
On Thursday, he was making his second round of lefse for the year. Prior to Thanksgiving -- with the help of family members -- he made 200 dozen.
"It took about four days," he said. "We didn't work that hard at it."
Throughout his married life, he has made lefse with his wife Judy. He began making it for others when he joined Our Savior Lutheran Church.
"It's a German church," Brunsvig said. "The first year we joined it, I said, `How about doing a lefse fund-raiser'?"
The elders were skeptical, but after he offered to pay for supplies, they gave approval. That year, they sold 80 dozen. That began a holiday tradition, with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans providing the seed money each year.
"People started ordering who didn't belong to the church," Judy Brunsvig added.
Volunteers from church who had never before made lefse started to volunteer. This year, with the pandemic, the church fund-raiser was canceled. However, that didn't prevent Brunsvig from receiving calls from folks hungry for lefse made with his secret recipe.
Traditionally, lefse is made with boiled potatoes, butter, milk or cream, a bit of sugar and all-purpose flour. Family members just grin and shake their heads when asked how he tweaked the recipe to make it a little better.
"That's why they're so good," Brunsvig said, "because nobody can duplicate it."
When he started getting inquiries about ordering lefse earlier this year, he decided to embrace the opportunity. He said he can't sit still, and making lefse for others has intrinsic rewards.
"What makes me happy is seeing people smile and call back and say they want more lefse," he said.
He put up a few signs around town, and prior to Thanksgiving he worked with family members to fill the orders. He and his wife worked with his daughter, son-in-law and some of their great-grandchildren, who helped to flip the lefse on the griddle.
"They love doing it," Brunsvig's daughter Sandra Scholl said about the teens. "They stuck in there the whole day. They were such troopers."
To make the lefse, the family uses a garage which has been outfitted for food processing. Scholl and Brunsvig use it primarily for processing deer each year -- again, by request. His unique blend of seasonings makes his sausage popular.
Because he has been making lefse for so many years, he has developed a system which enables his team to work efficiently. While they are rolling and cooking one batch, premeasured potatoes are being boiled.
The potatoes are peeled and chopped the day before the lefse is made. Brunsvig prefers russet potatoes and wants them chopped to a uniform size so they cook evenly.
He's careful to check them on a regular basis so they aren't overcooked. He does not want them mushy. When the potatoes are cooked, they are drained.
"I grind the potatoes rather than rice them," he said.
Milk and butter are added to pre-measured dry ingredients in a bowl and the potatoes are ground right into that bowl. They are then mixed by hand and balls are formed from the dough. An ice cream scoop is used for that to ensure a uniform size.
Brunsvig then rolls the balls into thin sheets that are transferred to a hot griddle using a lefse stick.
He recalled that when he was a boy, they used the same stick to make lefse that they used when doing laundry. When used for laundry, it was used to drag clothes out of the washing machine to place between rollers of a wringer.
Each piece of lefse is turned when spots form on one side and taken off the griddle to cool when both sides have spots. After it's cooled, the lefse is packaged.
On Thursday, a three-person team was at work using two griddles. When two people are rolling the balls into circular sheets, three griddles are used. To make the task easier, the work surfaces have been raised.
"I couldn't stand all day and roll if I had to bend over," Brunsvig said. "You get a little wiser as you get older."
He thought he was done making lefse for others this year after filling orders last month. However, people started calling again, so he decided to make more. Once again, there are signs up indicating that lefse will be available Dec. 18-22 and listing his phone number: 480-5142.
"That's what keeps me going," he said. "I'm not one to sit around."
