Farm Food: Must It Always Be Folk?

Kazimir Malevaich Taking In the Rye, 1911 [Russian Cubo-Futurist or upremist art]

Thomas Hart Benton Louisiana Rice Fields, 1928 

 The 1970s  folklore academics were riveted on the necessity to search out, identify and define their subjects, a left-over from the biological sciences of the 19th century. Many publications were largely devoted to their findings, strove toward meaning, but seldom was the research pushed beyond, into "art", per se.

That was separate.

In the realm of folk arts two approaches held sway. One, epitomized by antique collectors. which focused on the unique even "quaint appearnce of form, whether the maker was known or unknown. As Simon Bronner put it in his excellent study,  Tradition,

Today,  visual culture, now a were  such and such a narrative or image was folk or non-folk. The earliest article that I found on the subject,  "The Non-Folkness of the Folk and the Folkness of the Non-Folk by Charles Seeger (Pete and Peggy's dad), an essay included in Folklore and society: Essays in honor of Benj. A. Botkin (Hatboro: Folklore Associates, 1966, pp. 1–9).

In a former life, I was fortunate to apply my graduate study in folklife to interesting projects in the public in the "public sector".  That's a code word, rare these days, for state or federally-funded research in folk art,  ethnic studies, ethnography, and vernacular architecture, often presented as an art exhibit , a publication or a documentary film.  One of the best of all was a survey of the food traditions from twelve of the major ethnic groups in Minnesota (The Minnesota Ethic Food Book, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986).

Researching and writing the chapter about the Scandinavian communities took me to the edges of the state, to counties near the Red River and others bordering Iowa, into the bleak northern Iron Range and, of course, the Twin Cities.

In the far-western Chippewa County village of Milan (settled in the late 1880s by Scandinavians (and with a population today around 350), I met Karen Jensen.

Born a Danish American but drawn to Norwegian and Swedish traditional arts, Jensen carries an international reputation in the Dala tradition and rosemaling, once all but defunct in America but revived with the help of Federal Arts Project artists working under the WPA in the 1930s. 

Several of her paintings (rendered in a Dala style), were narrations of local stories having to do with farm food: butchering and cooking.

Below: Karen Jensen, The Day the Rommegrut Ran Out, 1985

"It was a disaster!"

The painting depicts a tented booth in a May Day fair at a point when the favorite of all dessert puddings, Rommegrut, was completely sold out.
The pudding is a pan-Scandinavian specialty, along with lefse, lutefisk
Calls for the special sour cream found on Norwegian farms. Here heavy cream is substituted.  In Lutheran church basement kitchens, one would find the porridge being stirred with a well-used tvare, an implement hand made from the ends of an evergreen tree [see The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book, 1986, p. 119].

Rømmegrøt (Sweet Cream Porridge) Recipe

• 1 gallon Heavy whipping cream
• 4 c. flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. salt About milk
• 1 egg, well beaten

Put cream into a large 10-qt. kettle. Put milk in to a 4-qt. kettle over medium heat. Bring cream to a boil over medium/moderate heat and boil cream for 20 minutes; sift in flour gradually to prevent lumps while stirring. Continue cooking over moderate heat, stirring to bring out butterfat; remove butter as soon as it forms and save. Add scalded milk gradually, stirring until mixture is smooth. Add salt and sugar and cook about 5 minutes more. Stir in one well beaten egg. Serve hot with drawn butter fat, sugar, and cinnamon. Can freeze any leftovers. You need to add warm milk when reheating in a microwave or a saucepan until the right consistency. Serves 25
From the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives © Larry & Deann Gjenvick

Jensen's studio itself is a beautiful piece of art.  The bathroom is decorated with many rosemaled pieces of furniture, paintings in a Swedish style, and smaller pieces of decorated furniture and with painted murals on the wall.  The studio was built with logs taken off the property in order to add-on to the original home.

Lodging is available at the Trestuen Studio.  Available are two beautifully decorated bedrooms and this writer has slept in one of them. Cozy!. 

Jensen in known throughout the Midwest and continues to paint in her Rosemaling style in Milan, MN  56262

Jennie Cell, Butchering Day, circa 1955-1960

Jennie Cell  [b.Born: Charleston, Illinois, 1905.  Died: Charleston, Illinois, 1988].  Her two best works, including Butchering Day, hang in the Smithsonian and includes Pruning Day, 1955-60.