Hostfest to showcase Norwegian food, music, crafts

Taste of Norway Hostfest, an annual fall festival showcasing Norwegian food, music and crafts, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2, at St. Olaf Lutheran Church, 1233 Douglas Ave. in Montgomery. The community is invited. Admission and parking are free.

The sponsor is Sons of Norway Polar Star Lodge 5-472, a Norwegian-American cultural group which meets monthly at the church.

At noon, lunch will be served and a craft market opens. The lunch menu will include homemade traditional Norwegian food including smørbror, open-faced sandwiches; and lefse, potato flatbread.

Desserts will include homemade, cream cakes; fruit soup; lingonberry bars, almond bars, Kringla (cake), ice cream with lingonberries and Kardamom rolls, cake and cookies.

At 1 p.m., Polar Star President Ken Johnson of Yorkville will greet guests in brief remarks.

Features include a loppemarked (marketplace) and bakeri (bakery). Volunteers will demonstrate cooking lesfse, a potato flatbread; krumkake, a waffle cookie; rosemaling, folk painting on wood; and hardanger, Norwegian-style embroidery.

Scandinavian jewelry and knitted items will be available for purchase.

Polar Star Lodge 5-472, meeting monthly at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Montgomery, is a member of Sons of Norway, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based nonprofit founded in 1895 to promote Norwegian culture and heritage and offer financial products and services to members. The organization offers activities including language classes, cooking classes and sports programs to celebrate members' Norwegian heritage.

The organization has over 330 locally-governed lodges in the United States, Canada and Norway. For information, call (630) 553-7389 or visit polarstarlodge.com/5.html for more information.