12 oz. Jar $6.95

3 lb. Pail $13.95

Spice up your holidays (and "Everydays") with Olsen’s Pickled Herring.

Olsen’s uses a time-honored, century-old recipe to preserve the unparalleled quality and taste of their pickled herring.  They begin with Grade "A" Herring from the frigid and rich North Atlantic waters of Canada.  It is then processed the old-fashioned way with fresh onions and whole spices, and cured in a sweet brine with old world flavor under the highest level of food safety and Kosher certification.

Click on the image and order yours TODAY!   

WE WANT YOUR STORY! Email us about your family lefse and lutefisk traditions, unique ways to use lefse, or your favorite Ole & Lena joke, and we'll share your story with all of our lefse-lovers!

'Til next time,

Your Friends at NORSLAND LEFSE

p.s. If you have Scandinavian friends (or Irish, or Japanese, or...), be sure to share this newsletter by using the handy "Forward Email" link below.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Call us:  (800) 584-6777

Dear , Welcome to March!  Spring is in the air and soon we will be celebrating the Lenten season with family gatherings.  Don't forget that Norsland Lefse offers lefse, lutefisk, pickled herring and other Scandinavian delights YEAR-ROUND!  And ordering is so easy. 

If you're in the neighborhood some Friday before Easter, be sure to come in for All-You-Can-Eat lefse, lutefisk, meatballs and boiled or battered cod. 

Happy Spring! 

The Staff at Norsland Lefse

A herring is a beautifully marked blue-green and silver iridescent, delicately flavored, nutritious fish. It is the world’s most plentiful and most widely consumed fish in the world’s ocean.  The name herring comes from the German word "heer," meaning army, descriptive of the huge schools of Atlantic Herring and their precise, army-like formations as they swim.  

In the early days, schools of herring were located by the presence of circling, diving sea birds such as gulls and gannets. Old-timers stated that when the sea "sort of browned over," there was bound to be a school of Atlantic herring there. They looked for dead, churned up pieces of plankton. Some looked for a "spot of oil" on the surface of the sea, which meant a passing school of Atlantic herring, and others were able to sniff out the schools by the odor of cucumber that permeated the air whenever herring were close by.

Longevity - In 2005, a Dutch woman by the name of Henrikje van Andel-Schipper died at the super-centenarian age of 115, and her mind was sharp right up until her death.  Her self-proclaimed secret of longevity–pickled herring!  According to a Fox News report in June 16, 2008, the post-mortem analysis of her brain revealed few signs of Alzheimer’s or other diseases commonly associated with a decline in mental ability in old age. 

The Cure for a Hangover - Jutta Saumweber, a dietary adviser at a consumer advice center in Munich, Germany, states "Someone with a hangover should drink a lot of fluids, increase the intake of mineral salts such as sodium and potassium and eat sour foods such as pickled cucumbers or pickled herring. This aids the breakdown (of alcohol)." 

Ash Wednesday marks the end of the Fasching celebration in Germany, reminiscent of Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  When everything is all over but the hangovers, the Germans recover by eating (you guessed it) pickled herring.

Sven's Funnies...

WHY ST. PATRICK'S DAY IS CELEBRATED EACH YEAR IN AMERICA
 
The reason the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day is because that is when St. Patrick drove the Norwegians out of Ireland.

It seems that some centuries ago, many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the Norwegian winter. Ireland was having a famine at the time and food was scarce. The Norwegians were eating almost all the fish caught in the area, leaving the Irish with nothing to eat but potatoes.

St. Patrick, taking matters into his own hands, as most Irishmen do, decided the Norwegians had to go. Secretly, he organized the Irish IRATRION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians). Irish members of IRATRION passed a law in Ireland that prohibited merchants from selling ice boxes or ice to the Norwegians in hopes that their fish would spoil. This would force the Norwegians to flee to a colder climate where their fish would keep.

Well, the fish spoiled, all right, but the Norwegians, as every one knows today, thrive on spoiled fish. So, faced with failure, the desperate Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage caves in the dead of night and sprinkled the rotten fish with lye, hoping to poison the Norwegian invaders. But, as everyone knows, the Norwegians thought this only added to the flavor of the fish, and they liked it so much they decided to call it 'lutefisk', which is Norwegian for 'lucious fish'.

Matters became even worse for the Irishmen when the Norwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop and making something called 'lefse'. Poor St. Patrick was at his wit's end, and finally on March 17th, he blew his top and told all the Norwegians "where they should go in the hereafter".

So they all got in their boats and emigrated to Minnesota or the Dakotas, the only other paradise on earth where smelly fish, old potatoes and plenty of cold weather can be found in abundance.

The End

'Have a favorite Nordic joke or story?  Emai l us today!

 NEWS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS:

Hannah M. from Galt, CA writes: "I love your lefse; it tastes the best!  My family loves to have lefse, especially your lefse.  I just can't get enough.  Although your lefse tastes good already, I have some ideas.  Why don't you try making ingredients to go along with the lefse--kind of like a lefse-making beginners' pack.  That's an idea for you.  I just plain love your lese!  Please never stop making your lefse.  According to my taste buds, Norsland Lefse is the best!  Kee up the awesome work.  I can't wait for my next bite of Norsland Lefse!"

M. Forbush writes:  "My father was an immigrant from Norway and my mother was second generation Norwegian. I grew up on a farm in Houston County where we always had lefse for holidays, but didn't make it ourselves. I introduced my 4 children to it and subsequently my 8 grandchildren. My daughters and I learned to make it and our holidays wouldn't be complete without a big tray of it. Every one of them love it and look forward to it. In fact, a couple of weeks ago when my youngest granddaughter was at my house, I asked her if she'd like to bake something and she promptly replied, "Can we make lefse?" My dad would be so proud!

"My sister and brother, still Minnesotans, introduced me to Norsland Lefse and since it is so good, I now buy it from there. We traveled there last Saturday to see the place and stock up. Keep up the good work!"

Email your favorite lefse ideas, and we'll share them with all of our Norsland friends.