Lund Lutheran Church celebrating 125 years

Your own level of “Home-Made” is Best !  

Pot-Luck in Gully for Lund Church 125th on July 16.  Bring it on! 

Summers are short in this neck of the woods. Every day is heavily loaded with scheduled activities and unscheduled surprises. For many people in such a short season of working and/or playing overtime, a culture of convenience develops. 

Still out on the road or just coming home as the evening summer sun aims westward for the day, many people look for something “quick” to eat.  Maybe it’s a stop for a drive-in burger or a take-out pizza or something easy from the home freezer.  “Pick-up food” has become everyday diet fare for a lot of folks, even whole families.  There is a place for convenience and we each make our choices on the trade-offs.  

But remember when food was all Home-Made? Remember when ingredients were fresh and unprocessed and you knew what they were? Which hot dish or cold summer salad was your favorite?  Whose recipe was the best? Do you still make it today? 

In 1896, the Gully area was opened for homestead and two years later in 1898, the Lund Norske Luthereske Menighet (Lund Lutheran Church) Congregation was formed (125 years ago). Of course, part of the upcoming 125th Celebration will be a Church Dinner. It’s tradition. We all know that Gathering of Friends and Family is greatly enhanced with good food, and lots of it. Plan to enjoy the adventure of participation and preparation! 

At traditional Pot-Luck Church Dinners, everyone brings a homemade dish to contribute to the meal.  Well, actually, not every person always brought food. Every family brought food. Historically, it was generally the women who prepared it. Today, we know many men who have excellent food preparation skills and we know we will see some of their best. We know many kids who can cook up a storm. Home-Cooking isn’t just for the Ladies any more. It’s a creative and cultural experience that we all can enjoy and share. It’s true that Minnesota Norwegian-Lutherans are a modest bunch and not brought up to brag and show off. However, an exception is at a Pot-Luck. This is where your best dish will do the showing off for you. Bring it on!

125 years ago and still continuing today, Pot-Luck Church Dinners have always been an eagerly anticipated event. Folks start to drift through their old recipe card boxes and books from area churches and towns where neighbors have shared their best recipes. Their names are on them and through the years there are little handwritten notes such as “good”, “use whole milk” or “cut the sugar in half”. When it says “double this”, we know it’s a keeper! It’s great fun to browse through these books. 

For practical reasons, planting, weeding and harvesting a garden, gathering eggs, milking the cows and feeding the cattle and chickens were all part of the preparation for “homemade” food in the late 1890’s when the Lund Church Congregation was formed. Today, a scary number of people do not cook! There are people who have ridded themselves of all their collected cookbooks. No fear: call your sister and ask for details on the potato salad that your mother made… or get Grandma’s oatmeal cookie recipe because you know a canister of those will travel well and you are coming from afar.  Check in with your old confirmation classmates and get in a chit-chat, compare favorite food notes and encourage them to come! What better way to reconnect with friends, neighbors, family and hometown heritage than at a traditional 125th Sunday After-Church Pot-Luck Dinner? See you in Gully on July 16th! 

Times, tastes and eating habits do evolve. What constitutes “home-made” meals now varies widely from family to family and various ages, lifestyles and taste-buds.

We see the word “Homemade” used a lot. “Homemade” might be just paying attention to the food groups while serving canned or packaged ingredients quickly heated on the stove or oven from a nice bowl. 

For many folks, there has evolved what is become known as “Homemade from a Box” . This is kind of a hybrid between truly home-made and convenience food. Part of the ingredients might be canned or pre-mixed or pre-seasoned and whole ingredients are added to make the dish and “whala!” it’s food. There are many levels of “Homemade from a Box” and most cooks go there at least once in a while. 

We see a lot of old recipes that call for Sweetened Condensed Milk or a can of Cream of Something Soup or Jello. These are fore-runners of “Homemade from a Box” cooking. We can almost date the recipe by the ingredients it calls for! 

Should we make an old favorite? Or bravely test out a new one? Should it be hot or cold? Sweet or savory? Filling or fancy? One wonders how many people they expect? (Well, the goal is to gather 300 people for this celebration, so load up your family, friends and neighbors and help get to this end! The Ladies Aid will provide the coffee, punch, water, condiments and tableware. There will be Bar-b-q on a Homemade Bun and cake and ice-cream. Your job will be to bring something to work around those starters.)

Whether you take this opportunity to delve into your best old handwritten recipes for some wholesome heritage; choose a “Homemade from a Box” option; or make a stop at the snack aisle at the grocery store; your pot-luck will be heartily welcomed, appreciated and enjoyed by all.  What better way to extend a tribute to all small rural churches for the important part they play in our communities and specifically to celebrate the decades of dedication of sustaining the Lund Lutheran Church Congregationin Gully, than to gather together for a meal with everyone in participation? We won’t call this meal just “Home- made”, we will call it “Heart-Made”, and will look forward to your company. 

Lund Lutheran Congregation will host the 125th year Celebration on July 16, 2023. Worship Service will be at 10 am with special programming and historical displays. (Probably the coffee pot will be on in the church basement.) After the service, all the members and visitors will pause for a group photo in front of the church. Families: be sure plan to all participate this photo! Then we will head across the street to the Gully Hall for the dinner and visiting. (FYI the hall is air conditioned and accessible.)  

As you plan your pot-luck dish, also plan to stir up your friends and neighbors to come and make this a day of remembrance. Contact any Lund member with your questions or call the church (listed under Gully-Trail Parish).