RIDERS IN THE STORM Locals capture, chase storms in tornado valley
Also in this issue: Get outside and go DISC GOLFING No way, ROSÉ — pick the right rosé for this summer Curl up with a good book — “THE SEED KEEPER”
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GREENER DAYS AHEAD Great golf happens on great courses. And courses don’t get better than the ones on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. With 11 locations, 26 courses and more than 400 championship holes, the toughest challenge may be deciding which one to play first. Our golf courses and staff are ready to welcome you back to the legendary RTJ Golf Trail. Summer and fall golf packages available. We are open and will be here waiting for you. Visit rtjgolf.com.
2 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
FEATURE S JUNE 2021 Volume 16, Issue 6
16
Storm chasin’ Jamie Kor and Joshua Eckl, two area residents, take on the fiercest storms.
22
26
Pandemic weddings
Outside options
Many events canceled amid the pandemic but lovebirds still went through for the “I Do.”
Disc golfing popularity boomed during pandemic
ABOUT THE COVER Jamie Kor began his first tornado chase as a 6-year-old with his dad. Now, he travels all over tornado valley chasing and capturing these captivating storms. MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 3
DEPARTMENTS 6
From the Editor
8
This Day in History
9
Avant Guardians Areca Roe
10 Beyond the Margin Together once again
9
12 Familiar Faces Katie Heintz
14 Day Trip Destinations
“Twin Cities” of Iowa: Clear Lake and Mason City
30 Let’s Eat!
Lola - an American Bistro
32 Community Draws
10
Recycling plastics and films
33 Beer
Checking trends and keeping the patios pact
34 Wine
Celebrating the lovely, dry rosés of southern France
35 Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors
A story rooted here - Diane Wilson
12
30
36 Ann’s Fashion Fortunes Closet, know thyself
38 Garden Chat
Gardening teaches life lessons
40 From This Valley Mission statement
Coming in July
35 4 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
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FROM THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR By Diana Rojo-Garcia MAY 2021 • VOLUME 16, ISSUE 5 PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Diana Rojo-Garcia EDITOR COPY EDITOR Kathy Vos CONTRIBUTORS Bert Mattson Dan Greenwood Jean Lundquist Kat Baumann Leticia Gonzalez Ann Rosenquist Fee Pete Steiner Nell Musolf Dana Melius PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman
PAGE DESIGNER Christina Sankey ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Theresa Haefner Tim Keech ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Christina Sankey DESIGNERS CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR
Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues. For all editorial inquiries, call Diana Rojo-Garcia 507-344-6305, or email drojogarcia@mankatofreepress.com. For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.
6 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Close encounters T
he gang scrunched together into Grandma’s detached utility room in mid-July 2019 in Wisconsin, soaking wet in our swimsuits to take a “tornado warning” selfie. My mother-in-law led the kids in the extended family into singing camp songs, my dog marked his territory in the corner, and my husband and I watched the imminent weather coming in through the aged door’s window. The wind dropped, the sky darkened and turned emerald green. It was only a few moments before this that the extended family members came to join in on the fun, floating on their pontoon from across the way, chatting and drinking. Sure, the day was cloudy, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying the summer day. Almost as soon as company arrived, the sirens began to blare. It wasn’t all that surprising when the sirens went off — there was an enhanced level of severe weather risk that day in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Diligently, we all picked up the floats and toys and extras and headed to the small room as we wrapped up in beach towels, dripping lake water. Normally, this would have been an adventure. And I was excited — momentarily. It wasn’t my first rodeo with tornadoes. Fear of tornadoes and severe weather from living in tornado alley as a kid turned into a lifelong interest in big storms. Their sheer power amazed me. I’d learned as much as I could watching storm chasers and reading up on the meteorology of them to appreciate these storms. I lived vicariously through storm chasers like Reed Timmer who’d closely approach these massive tornadoes. Maybe, I thought, one day I would also storm chase. But again, growing up in tornado alley, I knew firsthand
the damage storms can do to a community such as the 2007 tornado that devastated the town of Holly, Colorado. The tornado came at night and ripped the town to shreds. It was a gigantic storm that even from where we lived at the time, in Lamar, only 30 minutes away, we could see massive clouds lit up by lightning. Houses were torn apart and one woman was killed. In that Wisconsin utility room, the kids and adults continued to sing and the lights flickered. My husband and I watched the storm develop. Winds picked up, causing white caps on the lake and the sky continued to darken, and for a moment, I thought we were in deep trouble. It wasn’t until later that my sister-in-law admitted she didn’t feel fear until she saw me back away from the window. Thankfully, for us, the storm passed. In surrounding areas, trees had tumbled down. At our location, the storm left a few branches on the lawn and a couple of lasting impressions. And I knew that I would continue to watch storms mostly through YouTube, or at least not as purposely close as this encounter — especially not as near as two area storm chasers get that we spoke to for this month’s issue, KEYC meteorologist Joshua Eckl and lifelong storm chaser Jamie Kor. Eckl’s passion for meteorology stemmed from fear as a kid and now he chases at least once a year with friends across the country. Kor, contracted by SVL media, hits the road whenever a storm calls him and captures storms during the tornado season. Learn more about what these individuals face on a chase. Also in this issue: ■ Pick out the best rosé for this summer with help from Leigh Pomerory.
■ Check out Kat’s toon this month, which features a way to recycle your plastic bags. ■ Let’s Eat! Talks with Lola — an American Bistro. Learn what’s on the menu whether on their food truck at The Hub in Old Town or at the New Ulm restaurant location.
Diana Rojo-Garcia is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact her at drojogarcia@ mankatofreepress.com
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 7
THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist
Old Settlers’ picnic proved big success
June 11, 1924 Although many of the Old Settlers who populated the Mapleton area were no longer with them, children and grandchildren came in their place for the entertainment and the picnic. The program started promptly at 9:30 a.m. The 1924 picnic was deemed one of the most successful ever, in terms of attendance, program and weather. The morning featured music by the Mapleton band, several soloists and invocations from area preachers. John Goff of Mapleton also talked to the gathering and noted the land the picnic was held on had belonged to an old settler. Speeches were the main order of the day until mid-afternoon when horse races, foot races and demonstrations of fancy riding and roping were offered. A baseball game closed out the event, and unfortunately, the visiting team from New Richland won on a score of 4 to 2.
Union Labor to give fifth of a day’s pay to food fund
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June 11, 1946 The Central Labor Union in Mankato has recommended all members give 20% of a day’s pay to the Blue Earth County-North Mankato Emergency Food Fund. The goal was to feed 1,000 children for a month. About 24 unions were represented at the meeting where the vote was taken. During the days between June 15- 25, they hoped to raise $10,000. It wasn’t for local children, however. It was to feed the neediest children overseas.
Police to respond to campus for calls from faculty
June 2, 1970 One day, a Mankato State College professor was detained in his office on campus against his will. Another professor called for police help, but because that person was not a “designated contact” authorized to call police, the call for assistance was rejected by the dispatcher. Certain persons in positions of authority were listed to be taken seriously in an effort to cut down on prank calls for police and fire. City Manager Bill Bassett told the City Council that a deal had been worked out with the college that anytime a person identified themselves as a faculty member, police and/or fire personnel would respond to calls on campus.
Retirees see new life in Old Main
Friday, June 15, 1984 Once Old Main was the hub of campus activity, when what is now Minnesota State University was located solely near downtown Mankato. Then an upper campus was established on the hill, and eventually lower campus was abandoned by the school. Sitting empty since the mid-1970s, but still full of memories for many who had been students and staff at the school, an idea came to Irv Samuelson of Mankato: He wanted to save Old Main by creating an apartment complex for older citizens. The concept was common in southern states but had not taken hold in northern states. Bob Lincoln of Mankato liked the idea, and the two set off on the journey to create what today is Old Main Village. Built in 1922 after the original Old Main burned, the building had deteriorated while sitting empty. Developed by Curt Fisher of Mankato, the building is now a thriving retirement community.
AVANT GUARDIANS By Leticia Gonzales
In the natural world Photographer Areca Roe teaches photography and video at MSU
S
temming from a childhood fascination of photography, Areca Roe, now an art p ro f e s s o r a n d a r t i s t , b e g a n exploring manual cameras when she was 14 years old. “I always loved the magic of capturing a moment in time,” Roe said. “In college, I began to take photography more seriously as an art form through my art courses, then continued to pursue my own projects after college.” Roe, who received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota, also majored in biology as an undergraduate. “I worked in the field of biology for a time, then decided to pursue art more seriously and went for my MFA. Biology, and specifically ecology, remains an interest of mine.” Roe teaches photography and video at Minnesota State University. As an artist, she mostly focuses on photography but also incorporates video, installation and sculpture. “My art practice engages with our relationships to the natural world. These interactions are multifaceted — we need, we revere, we protect, and we also exploit and destroy the natural world,” she said. “But above all, we have separated ourselves from it. In my work, I often explore how these dislocations and reconnections manifest themselves in our lives and our society.” Nods to the natural world such as floral fabrics, fake plants and zoos have shaped Roe’s work as well. “This focus has shifted in my most recent project, but the floral or plant life fabrics have found their way into much of my recent work.” Her most recent series, “Terrestrial,” was shown at the 410 Project Gallery in Mankato. The exhibit featured her latest technique involving lenticular 3D prints. She also has displayed her work at the
Waseca Art Center, the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids and the Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis. “Each project is different and I learn new techniques every time. I love learning and pushing the boundaries — I don’t want to get overly comfortable with my tried-and-true techniques,” Roe said. “More recently, I’ve become interested in video, 360-degree video and augmented reality. I have a lot to learn in this realm, but that’s part of what excites me.” Last spring, Roe began what she calls her “pandemic project,” which is officially titled “Stock Pile.” “When the pandemic hit and stayat-home orders went into effect, I knew I would have to drastically alter my artistic practice. Like many artists, this practice helps me grapple with the complexities of what is happening around me, helps me make sense of the world. However, as a photographer, I was suddenly limited in what and whom I could photograph.” As a result, Roe created unique images and videos at home. Each one reflected a reaction to the prompts from the stock photography companies. She used materials she already had and plans to create a book out of those images. “In many of the images, I heighten the absurdity of the prompts or pull out some fascinating aspect or phrase that I think deserves further reflection. The resulting images and videos are varied in style but are connected by the sources of the prompts and the strange times we are living through now.”
MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 9
BEYOND THE MARGIN By Joe Spear
T
Coming together, taking flight
ogether. It’s become a dangerous word in COVID-19 world and a welcome word as the coronavirus subsides. The word has long been useful describing the act of gathering and having first been spoken before the 12th Century, according to the online Merriam Webster dictionary. That came at the time of Third Crusade led by some of Europe’s most powerful leaders including from the Holy Roman Empire’s Frederick I Barbarossa, Richard I (Lion-Heart) of England and Philip II Augustus of France. The crusades apparently needed a word that meant doing something in unison like pillaging foreign lands and religions. Merriam described the history and entomology of together thusly: “Middle English togedere, from Old English togædere, from t to + gædere together; akin to Middle High German gater together, Old English gaderian to gather.” And, true to its mission, Merriam Webster provided a sentence using the word together: “Added to this was the public spectacle at the Kumbh Mela, the Hindu gathering which saw crowds of up to 3 million come together on the banks of river Ganga in Haridwar.” The once-in-12 years Hindu gathering in India brought together too many. At this writing, India was the leading spreader of COVID, and it’s top doctors blamed its leader Narendra Modi, for his excessive campaign rallies that seemed all too familiar. Bad togethern. But we’ve avoided such gathering for the most part in Minnesota. Lutherans stick to potlucks and lefse parties with social distancing. In fact, as the calendar turned from April to May, Gov. Tim Walz loosened restrictions on gathering at events, weddings, restaurants and bars. He said “Minnesota’s Great Get Together,” the state fair, was likely to be near back to normal. The wonderful normal of deep fat fryers cooking buckets of French fries, jumbo corndogs and Proto Pups and mini donuts create the delightful smell and feel of the smoky haze of the state fair. Pronto Pups were invented George and Versa Boyington who sold hotdogs on Oregon beaches but whose business was hurt by buns continually being doused by rain. They invented the flour mix to make a more permanent, rain resistant “bun.” A Pronto Pup differs from a corn dog in that Pups have flour breading while corn dogs use corn meal in case anyone asks you at the state fair this year. Crowds of friends gather in beer gardens around guitar players with bootlegger smiles. And then there 10 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
are the names like Giggle’s grill and the dairy bar. And if you’re in the mood for something matriarchal, you can get spicy Italian sausages from Cynthia and chocolate chip cookies from Martha. Good together. The COVID 13 months had us thinking a lot about the importance of together. Who would have guessed such isolation brought out the better in people. While the American Psychological Association reported a three-fold spike in the number of people with depression, from 10 percent of the population to 30 percent, there was actually a decline in the number of suicides nationwide. Experts attribute it to a general environment where because of COVID people were checking in on each more and offered more support. Others note that telehealth made it easier to get mental health help. It wasn’t as anxiety creating as walking into a therapist’s office. Thanks Michael Phelps. ■■■■ By early May, the Bethany Hawkwatch volunteers had recorded 3,700 broad tailed hawks in the Mankato area. From March to May, the number was triple the highest number recorded at about 1,200 in 2014 when the spring watch began. “It’s the first time we have seen those kinds of numbers,” said Chad Heins, a Bethany professor who has helped organize the hawk watches. For some reason, weather perhaps, the hawks seem to be in a more westward migration pattern to their summer homes in northwestern U.S. And other species have also upped their numbers. Bethany Hawkwatch reports a record for sightings of Ospreys at 27, about triple typical numbers. Heins notes a rare siting of Mississippi Kites last year near Sibley Park. Minnesota is hundreds of miles from where one normally finds kites. And once birders from around the state and region found out about the kites siting, they have been inquiring about a return this year. That curiousity of what birds might do to return to familiar places gives us fascination. Man follows nature as it gives important signals. Birds of a feather. Together. Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.
MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 11
FAMILIAR FACES
At the
library North Mankato Taylor Library’s Director Katie Heintz looks forward to in-person programming
L Photos by Pat Christman
NAME:
Katie Heintz HOMETOWN: NORTH MANKATO
FAVORITE SEASON: Oh, I love them all.
NAME A RANDOM AND FUN FACT YOU KNOW: I have 3-year-old twin girls!
COKE OR PEPSI?: No soda. COFFEE!
ibraries add such a magical space to any community. Obviously, they’re full of reading materials, hundreds of resources and only a page away from stepping into a fictional world. But beyond the go-to spot to pick up the latest best-selling book, libraries like the North Mankato Taylor Library offer so much to a community. Throughout the years, Taylor Library hosted events such as Music in the Park, Bookin’ on Belgrade and ArtSplash. Not to mention it provides adult and children programming throughout the year. And at the height of COVID-19, the library remained closed but still continued to serve the community by offering a no-contact book pickup. More importantly, libraries are filled with friendly faces who help find a book, sign on to a computer and organize community events — such as North Mankato native Katie Heintz, Taylor Library’s director. MANKATO MAGAZINE: You’ve been at the North Mankato Taylor Library for eight years. What interested you the most in choosing this career? KATIE HEINTZ: I have been coming to the North Mankato Taylor library since I was a kid. My sister and I would bike down and back up the “big hill” to get to the library. The library was always a place of joy and excitement for me. Who wouldn’t want to work at a place like that? MM: The library was closed from mid-March through June 2020 due to the pandemic. What was that experience like for you and everyone at the library? KH: We still wanted to be there for our patrons, so it was a time of adjusting and getting things done. We learned to roll with things and get our materials out to the people that wanted/needed them. We
12 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
mailed books, dropped books off and checked in with our patrons. It was a good experience for us. We learned that we can be flexible, and the most important thing is serving our community. MM: What’s a favorite memory you have during your time at the library? KH: Before I was the director, I hosted the teen events. These are some of my favorite memories. I loved working with all the kids, seeing them grow up and break out of their shells was such a blessing. I talk a lot and I am loud, so I think the kids were comfortable just being themselves with me. MM: What’s been your favorite part of working at North Mankato Taylor Library in the last eight years? KH: I love getting to plan some of our big events. Seeing how the community comes together and everyone is so happy and having a great time. It makes me realize I’m in the right place. I equally love talking to all the patrons that come into the library. They feel like family. Talking kids, weather and books
is so simple, but you really get to know people and start to care about them. I have also met and worked alongside so many wonderful community members. They make me feel lucky to live here. MM: If you had to only choose three books to read for the rest of your life, what would they be and why? KH: “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens, “Necessary Lies” by Diane Chamberlain and the Bible. I love “Crawdads” and “Necessary Lies” — both great books and the Bible because duh. MM: What’s the longest rabbit hole you’ve been down? KH: I can get myself into a very deep rabbit hole on Instagram. I love all the home décor, toddler accounts and book club accounts; OK, I just love it all. MM: What is something about the library that some people might not know about? KH: Well, here we love when kids come and play. We have board books, toys, train tables and blocks in our children’s area.
They can laugh and be loud and we are OK with that. MM: What are some things that the community can look forward to during the summer months? KH: We have our Summer Reading Program, which will kick off with a walk through the zoo at Bluff Park on June 5. ArtSplash is back for its 16th year at SCC on June 19 and our Music in the Park is hosted at Wheeler (Park) Thursday nights in July and September 5:30-7:30 p.m. MM: What’s something you did pre-COVID that you’re looking forward to doing when we get back to “normal”? KH: In person programming, we look forward to being able to be all together again. MM: What tips have you picked up from your past jobs? KH: People just want to feel welcome and heard. Bad days happen and all someone wants is someone to listen.
Compiled by Diana Rojo-Garcia MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 13
DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: MINI ‘TWIN CITIES’ By Nell Musolf
Music Man Square is a popular location to visit in Mason City Iowa.
Mini ‘Twin Cities’ Mason City and Clear Lake, Iowa, offer shopping, art and music Photos courtesy Visit Mason City Iowa
A
hundred miles south of Mankato are two small cities nine miles apart that each offer a wide variety of activities for the day-trip traveler. Mason City, the larger of the two towns, is in Cerro Gordo County and has a population of almost 27,000. Clear Lake, in the same county and nine miles due west of Mason City, tops out at 7,000 people. Mason City is known for its large number of Prairie School style of architecture, made famous by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The style typically features geometric structures made of brick or stucco. In the city’s downtown, the Park Inn Hotel and City Bank buildings were designed by Wright. Both have been renovated and are open to the public. Scattered throughout the area are other examples of Prairie School architecture, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 14 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Mason City is also home to a historic steam locomotive, the Cannonball 457, which is the last remaining Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway steam locomotive. Located in the picturesque Cannonball Gardens, train enthusiasts can visit the train for free. Another interesting spot to visit is The Music Man Square, 308 South Pennsylvania Ave. The indoor square is based on “The Music Man,” a popular musical written by Mason City’s most famous son, Meredith Wilson. The Music Man Square was created using set designs from the 1962 movie and has an ice cream parlor, gift store and plenty of yesteryear charm. For those who prefer being outdoors, Mason City’s downtown area is filled with shops, restaurants, bars and other retailers. For the art lovers, the Charles H. MacNider museum features fine original paintings,
The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa is still visited by many fans. Wikipedia prints, photographs, sculpture and, thanks to another native son, puppeteer Bill Baird, a large puppet collection. The museum is at 303 S. Second St. SE and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays. COVID restrictions are in place and masks are required. Clear Lake is probably best known as the last place Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper — J.P. Richardson — performed before perishing in a plane crash minutes after take-off on Feb. 3, 1958. The Surf Ballroom, where the trio last played, is still open and was dedicated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as a historic rock and roll landmark. This summer, the Beach Boys will play the Surf Ballroom on Aug. 16. Clear Lake’s historic downtown features quaint shops and eateries with an old-fashioned feel. In view from downtown is the lake that gave the town its name. Clear Lake stretches seven miles in length and half a mile wide. The Lady of the Lake, an authentic paddleboat built in 1960, is open for private parties or public cruises. There is also a state park on the lake for camping and other outdoor activities. Both Mason City and Clear Lake have numerous restaurants
The Mason City, Iowa aquatic park is a good way to cool off in the summer months. and bars, ranging from lowcost family dining to higher-end meal experiences. Clear Lake’s Starboard Market, 310 Main Ave., is a local favorite. In Mason City, the 1910 Grille in the Park Inn Hotel, 7 West State St., offers fine dining in an atmosphere rich with history. With more than 80 miles of hiking and biking trails, sports enthusiasts can keep busy all day long. The Aquatic Center, 843 Birch Drive, Mason City, has been closed due to the pandemic but is slated to reopen this summer and costs non-members $3 a day for
admission. Thrifters can look for treasures in both towns. Favorite thrifting spots include Village General Store, 830 Hwy 18 West, Clear Lake, and Affordables, 315 N. Delaware, Mason City. Gift stores and clothing stores are abundant in both communities. Between the two miniature “twin cities,” a visit to Mason City and Clear Lake can fill an entire day with sightseeing, nature walks and eating before hitting Interstate 35 and heading back to Minnesota.
MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 15
Weekend meteorologist Joshua Eckl began formally chasing tornadoes when he was attending University of North Dakota.
Storm chasin’ Locals dare to confront powerful storms By Diana Rojo-Garcia | Photos by Pat Christman
J
oshua Eckl was 16 — a freshly licensed driver — when he was sent to get milk for his mom. “I was actually chasing some thunderstorms in the local area,” said the South St. Paul native. His chase turned out to be a bit longer than a quick errand to the convenience store for some 2% — perhaps by a couple of hours. Though Mom and Dad weren’t too happy about not receiving an update from the budding meteorologist, Eckl experienced his first close encounter with a storm. “It was my first time chasing, and I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he said. “I was trying to observe the storm from a distance and what was happening, so there was a lot of curiosity and a little bit of a fear.” Fear is something he knew a lot about. As a kid, Eckl was terrified of severe weather. It could be weather close to home or hundreds of miles away in a different part of the state that triggered his panic. 16 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
“I was terrified of thunderstorms, especially severe storms,” he said. “I didn’t understand distance when I saw a severe thunderstorm warning in our state, so I would start to freak out.” Trying to alleviate their son’s anxiety, his parents sat Eckl down in front of the TV and showed him where his county was on the map. “They told me to update them if the storm got closer. From there, as I grew older, my fear turned into curiosity.” The curiosity grew, and Eckl headed to the University of North Dakota and studied atmospheric science. He graduated in 2018 and shortly after joined KEYC in Mankato as the weekend meteorologist. “I always had this passion for being in meteorology in high school.” He wanted to learn the ins and outs of forecasting. And though his first experience chasing happened as a
teen, he didn’t chase storms regularly. It wasn’t until his time at UND that Eckl began to pursue storms again, equipped with knowledge on how to remain safe on the chase and with a better understanding of what happens during a storm. During his first storm on that initial errand run, Eckl observed the storm but felt completely out of his element. “I didn’t know what I was looking at and didn’t understand what structures I looked at.” After a year at UND, his first fullfledged storm chase took place in a three-credit storm chasing class that sent them to Texas. In two weeks, students had the opportunity to do more in-depth forecasting for severe weather and the opportunity for face-to-face experience with storms, like the one in Canadian, Texas. Witnessing the big tornado was surreal for Eckl. “It was a day that we weren’t expecting much to happen but storms did fire off.” The team was indecisive on whether or not to stay on location before heading to another to find storms, but they decided to move on. However, the students kept an eye on the first storm. “One of our (teacher assistants) in the class said, ‘Keep looking backward.’” A row of trees blocked their view, but as soon as they came around, they spotted a funnel that developed into a tornado. “There was a big stovepipe tornado and probably one of the best tornadoes,” he said. “It just sat there and spun in an open field. It was an unbelievable moment to see a very large tornado out in Texas with a bunch of nerds and storm chasers.” Each year, Eckl heads out with a group of friends for a week — a “chase-cation” — to wherever the wind takes them. Though some chasers carry weather instruments attached to their cars to measure wind speeds or dew points, Eckl doesn’t really carry those out onto a chase. “I take a laptop and our laptop has all of our data and radar,” he said. It gives the team weather updates. They also take a GPS to track the roads. “It can get pretty interesting on the road with the network in some areas. It’s crucial, too, to have cellular data.”
Tornado chaser James Kor began chasing as a side-career in 2016. The farthest the group has gone to chase is near the Mexico-U.S. border in Texas. They can easily put 3,000 miles on a car during a trip. There’s a risk in chasing, especially when the chaser doesn’t have adequate knowledge. Eckl ran into a couple who’d been watching the same storm as he was. He avoided going into the storm, as he realized it was going to produce significant-size hail, when the couple headed off into the storm. “They had a good beating on their vehicle.” Eckl suggests that anyone who wants to chase storms participate in a SkyWarn class with the National Weather Service. “It’s a good introduction into spotting and what you’re looking at when looking at a storm so you’re not just going out chasing … It can be very dangerous.” Encountering a storm is full of action, but there’s also a lot of waiting in between. “We have down days where we will go and explore a new area we’ve never been to,” he said. Sometimes they head to a local baseball minor league game and also run into some interesting characters, such as Jack Seymour, a stranger who bought the group steak dinners. But the action of storm chasing keeps Eckl coming back for more. “There’s something, too, when you’re out in a storm and watching it from a safe distance … There’s this beauty that just captures me,” he said. “I’m captivated by how you can just watch this system that has
so much energy, so much power being developed in front of you.”
Lifelong chaser
Jamie Kor’s first tornado experience dates back to 1998 — the tornado that devastated St. Peter. Kor was only 6 years old and remembers the funnel hitting the ground in his backyard in Nicollet — a full-blown tornado. At the time of landing, it was still a small tornado. “But my dad followed it,” Kor said. And even though he was 6, he recalls being amazed more than scared. Initially, of course, he felt some fear — being sent down to the basement with a powerful storm just around the corner. In the basement, Kor, his dad and brother watched the tornado from a nearby window. “We watched it come down from the sky, and then my dad was like ‘OK, I’m gonna follow it,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t want to stay here by myself!’” Kor said. “Mother Nature’s always amazed me.” And since then, Kor’s hit the road chasing storms with his dad or by himself after he got his own car. What about chasing does he enjoy? “Its unpredictability.” Kor chases storms as a side career — full time he’s a laborer for the Laborers Union — and has been doing so since 2016 after he live-streamed a tornado. He had just gotten out of work near the power plant in Mankato and all he had was his phone. Kor put the MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 17
Captured by Joshua Eckl in Canadian, Texas, May 27, 2015.
Storm system captured by Jamie Kor. phone on his windshield mount and hit the live button on Facebook. “Twenty minutes later, I’m driving down a dirt road and I’m realizing that the radar scan’s wrong and I look back at my phone again, and I look at my radar and I’m like, ‘This ain’t right,’” he said. Kor began to back up, knowing he was in a bad spot. “And as I did that, I said yep, this is a tornado overhead coming in right now and that’s when you see the cord flatten down and trees falling down.” Kor ended up getting run over by a rain-wrapped tornado in his truck. This footage is what got Kor chasing for brokers, such as SVL Media, after one of his friends saw the live video. “My buddy had taken my live stream and sent it to one of their editors and the editors got a hold of me on Facebook messenger,” Kor said. “They emailed me all the contracts that night and signed me up.” 18 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
A rainbow near a storm that Jamie Kor captured.
Mammatus clouds captured by storm chaser Jamie Kor. You’ve might have seen some of his footage on the Weather Channel or other national news networks. And not just tornadoes — Kor also chases snowstorms to shoot. “I learned that people from Minnesota think snow is really boring while national news networks eat snow up like it’s candy.” For the last five years, Kor has gone all across the tornado valley facing some intense storms, such as high precipitation cells — aka HP — which produce a lot of rain. “It makes chasing a lot more difficult.” A chaser can see on a radar where the rotation is but there are minutes of gap on that data. And if a chaser is too close, they can end up in the bear cage where the hook echo of a storm hooks up and starts looping in — that’s normally where a tornado is. “It’s normally within a half a mile of a location, if not closer,” he said. “It all depends on the storm, but
with those HP cells, you normally have to stay outside because, if you’re in that bear cage, you could get ran over by something destructive but not even notice it.” Much like his experience in the Badlands. Famed storm chaser Reed Timmer was on this particular chase too (and one of the reasons Kor was more comfortable with the situation than he normally would have been) with forecast meteorologist Mark Scanlon. A friend of Kor’s also was along. “You got these high rocks … with 100 miles an hour wind gust, (the rocks) will hit your car,” he said. “With SUVs, that’ll almost blow you over out of nowhere. So we ended up pulling off and that’s when we blew out our windshields with the hail while we watched this van continue into the worst part of the storm.” Timmer kept going. “But that’s why he gets the big bucks,” Kor laughed. Kor hits the roads when tornado season begins — sometimes with
Gillette, Wyoming, June 2017, captured by Joshua Eckl
Lamar, Colorado, May 2018 captured by Joshua Eckl. his wife, friends or solo. And sometimes he and his 5-year-old son check out thunderstorms in the area. Not tornadoes — at least not yet. Beyond chasing these majestic storms and capturing them on footage, Kor really got into storm chasing for the warnings. Chasers and spotters provide pertinent information to the National Weather Service. Kor uses an app, RadarScope, which the NWS also uses. The app provides NWS with chasers’ information. NWS at times contacts chasers who are near a storm. “They have an index on storm reports and can see who has given them — some people give false storm reports or bad storm reports and they’ll call you,” Kor said. “If they call you, it’s normally a good thing.” Kor does work with local NWS to provide accurate reports — damage, wind speeds, hail size, etc. The radar information can only go so far, Kor said. Parts of Minnesota
Wright, Wyoming, on May 21, 2016. Pictured is Joshua Eckl.
can get iffy on the radar because it can only reach out so far. “They really rely on the ground information,” Kor said. A spotter or chaser can verify the radar by confirming, for example, a rotating wall cloud. Chasers also check in on damaged homes to make sure anyone inside is OK. “If there’s severe damage, you got a first-aid kit — so if someone needs a tourniquet or for some reason, they’re bleeding, you bandage them up, clean them up and stay with them if they’re severely traumatized until paramedics can get there.” Though Kor has spent much of his life chasing storms, he warns it is dangerous. “It’s not something everyone should do.” For some, storm chasing is a form of getting money and money drives people. “You’ll get chasers out there doing stupid things, driving down roads that you can’t see going 100 mph, passing on double yellow lines all to get that
shot.” Training is key, Kor said, such as NWS Skywarn training. For Kor, storm chasing is all about the unpredictability even when he’s not actively chasing, like in 2019 when he was driving toward Fargo to work. “My severe weather alert went off on my phone and said I was in a tornado warning,” he said. “I wasn’t fully awake and it’s far too early to go to work at 2 a.m.” He looked at his radar and something didn’t look right. There was a couplet crossing over I-94, precisely at Kor’s location. He watched three trees fall over onto the highway. Kor called his wife to let her know what was going on. “I said, ‘If I end up in the hospital, this is the town I’m in if I don’t make it work,’” Kor said. He was stuck and still groggy — he just kept driving. “I got to work, though, and I had a story to tell.” MM
MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 19
REFLECTIONS By Pat Christman
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T
hings are starting to open up again. Spring buds unfold, exhibiting their beauty while reaching for the sun’s warmth. But even more is opening up than that. Doors are opening again. Restaurants are welcoming more patrons. Events are being rescheduled. More guests are able to attend weddings and other celebrations. The world is open to hope as a long pandemic wanes. Spring always offers an awakening of new hope and prosperity for the coming year. Here’s hoping this year’s opening continues to a summer and fall full of renewed life. MM MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 21
Alex and Sarah Cornish stand on a sidewalk outside the Blue Earth County Justice Center while Judge Gregory Anderson presides over the brief wedding ceremony.
Love & Marriage in the time of
COVID
Some couples refused to let a pandemic stand in the way of tying the knot. For those who waited, it looks like weddings are on the menu again. By Robb Murray 22 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
T
his definitely wasn’t the plan. It wasn’t the dream wedding she’d envisioned. Not even close.
But for Sarah and Alex Cornish, like many couples who’d planned a 2020 wedding, normal wasn’t going to be part of the equation. They’d set dates, then canceled them. They’d gotten their hopes up when it looked like case infection rates were dropping, then scrapped plans when shutdowns were the norm and gatherings were outlawed. Then they got an idea. They were obviously in love and had been planning a wedding for two reasons: to officially tie the knot and to throw a party to celebrate their union. But there are no rules that say both of those things have to happen on the same day. So on a sunny day last June, Sarah and Alex got dressed up and met a robed judge on a sidewalk outside the Blue Earth County Justice Center. It took four minutes. Do you take Sarah? Yes. Do you take Alex? Yes. Just like that, with a statemandated minimal crowd on hand — six people, including the bride and groom — Sarah and Alex became husband and wife. “We’ve been together for nine years. And we’re like, ‘You know, let’s just get married,’” she says. “We’re still gonna go through with everything we’ve planned. We just really wanted to be married to each other, I guess. I don’t know. It’s kind of silly.” The Cornishes are an example of the havoc wreaked upon the weddings of the world. Graduations, concerts, sporting events and everything else got put on hold while many people did their part to put the pandemic behind us. Weddings, however, fall in a category all their own. They aren’t a rite of passage linked to age, such as
After dating for many years, Sarah Cornish says she and Alex are happy they finally got married, even if the wedding didn’t go off as they’d planned. graduations. They’re not something that can be easily rescheduled, like a concert or a ball game. They’re packed with emotion and stress and tangled up with traditions and customs that are sometimes planted in people’s minds at a young age. So when you mess with a wedding, you mess with people’s dreams. But we’re not here to blame anyone. Because, while it’s true many weddings got postponed (or perhaps canceled, who knows?), a fair number of people took their COVID-tinted lemons and made a pretty fair batch of lemonade. But here’s the good news: With COVID numbers dropping, wedding planning is picking up.
Organizers at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center say bookings are on the rise.
Uptick
Ever since restrictions became the norm, the state has treated weddings as a special category. “The state in the past has seen wedding receptions as different than other types of events,” says Claudia Hicks, hospitality manager at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center. “There’s a relaxed quality to weddings that other events might not have — like business events — that I think has been associated with a concern for the spread of COVID.” Bookings are picking up. Hicks says organized brides were MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 23
than the alternative: no weddings, a concept Mikala Ness knows all about. Ness, who was born and raised in Mankato but now works at a hotel in Oakdale, had the unenviable job of calling brides to tell them their wedding wasn’t going to happen. “We only had one or two scheduled at the time. One of them understood, and she actually rebooked. So it was fine,” Ness says. “The other one was a little bit upset, because, you know, she’s a bride, she’s looking forward to her wedding. And to find out you can’t have it … It was really hard for us to get that across to her and help her understand that it’s not our rules. We were just doing what we’re told. She did not end up rebooking with us.”
Intimate gathering
The Cornishes plan a full-blown wedding reception this month to celebrate their union. predicting in March that wedding season was about to break free of lockdown. That’s when the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center hosted its annual Bridal Show. “We saw a big resurgence of interest,” Hicks says. “It was a good temperature check to see where people are at with planning weddings, and it was incredibly well attended.” With a few exceptions, venues lost an entire year of weddings. They’re counting on the back end of 2021 and 2022 to recoup some of that lost revenue. But they don’t expect it to double. Hicks says the pandemic, in 24 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
addition to changing a lot of plans, changed a lot of minds as well. More couples opted for backyards and immediate family instead of ballrooms and big crowds. So while they do expect a busy wedding year, some of the revenue they’d typically predict is simply gone. “I personally know a lot of people who just decided a big wedding wasn’t what they were gonna do,” she says. For the immediate future, weddings still may carry the trappings of COVID reality, such as smaller sizes and maybe hand sanitizers as part of table centerpieces. But that’s better
Anne and Dan Nichols, like the Cornishes, had planned a large January 2021 wedding with 250 guests. During the summer prior, they surveyed COVID infection rates and figured the pandemic would subside in time for their winter wedding. But instead of continuing a downward trend, infection rates skyrocketed and everything shut down. Anne and Dan were determined. “We decided to get married anyway,” Nichols recalls, “because that was important to us.” She says she felt sad at first, thinking of the large wedding she’d always dreamed of. But as the event played out — a small gathering of the couple’s closest friends and family — something wonderful happened. “After it was all said and done, I was so happy that we had such an intimate wedding,” Nichols says. “We really got to hang out with family and friends and talk with them. Everyone was involved in every aspect of the wedding. It was really fun and something a little bit different. A story to tell our kids, for sure.” And just because they said their vows doesn’t mean they’re not going ahead with the dream wedding reception. “It’s going to be pretty much the same as the wedding reception we had planned,” Nichols says. “It’ll be much more
Top: The church was nearly empty when Anne and Dan Nichols got married. But they didn’t mind; the intimacy that came with a smaller wedding made up for the lack of spectators. Bottom: Anne Nichols says she’s excited to finally be able to have the big wedding reception she’d always dreamed of, and she hopes it can be a celebratory moment not just for their union, but also for the waning of the pandemic. laid back. I think at the core of it, it’s just a party. I’ll wear my dress, he’ll wear his tux, we’ll walk in together. But other than that, I just want everyone to be able to get together at the end of the pandemic.” The Cornishes have the same vibe. And this month they’ll be holding the wedding event Sarah had always imagined. And she’ll finally get to wear her wedding dress; it’s been parked at Valerie’s Bridal for two years. “I’m glad we did our little courthouse ceremony. I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to explain,” she says. “And knowing that I get to experience that again, but in a different way is … amazing.” MM
June is the month for pearls!
Goldsmith & Gallery Owner Patty Conlin 420 N. Minnesota, St. Peter, MN 507-934-5655 • stonesthrowgallery.org MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 25
Seven-year-old Warren Weyland of Mankato (white shirt), tossing a disc at the basket hole, was the youngest of 96 participants in the May 1 Lando Open disc golf tournament. Photo by Dana Melius
Outside
OPTIONS Disc golf popularity booms By Dana Melius
N
olan Crockford looked for a way to stay active in competitive sports after high school and settled in nicely to the up-and-coming world of disc golf. And while many new to the game take it on as a recreational outdoor activity, fueling the growth in disc golf courses throughout Minnesota, the 27-yearold Janesville resident has taken to the sport in a more serious way. Through May 2, Crockford had already 26 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
participated in nine competitive tournaments, winning his division twice. Crockford said he got hooked on disc golf participating in a couple of benefit events in Pierre, South Dakota, a few years back. “From there, I found a local league and it just blossomed from there,” he said. “Last year, due to COVID, it was about the only thing you could do.” On May 1, Crockford finished fourth in the Lando
Chad Hillesheim sits near the first tee of the Riverside Park disc golf course in St. Peter. Photo by Dana Melius
Open at the Land O’ Memories disc golf course in Mankato, shooting a 16-under par 120 in the Advanced division on the 18-hole layout. He followed that up the next day winning the Forest City, Iowa, Frenzy tournament with an 8-under par, two-stroke victory. Ninety-six disc golfers participated in the Lando Open, with tournament directors William Hansen Begg, of Mankato, and Crockford each scoring aces (holes-in-one). Seven-year-old Warren Weyland, of Mankato, was the youngest participant, tossing his discs in the Junior division. Crockford’s climb in the disc golf world means his individual rating has improved to 924 (on a scale of 1,000) since the start of the 2021 season. The Professional Disc Golf Association website keeps up-to-date player ratings and tournament results. Crockford has only been a member since 2020.
Pro goals
While Crockford remains an amateur right now, that might be
changing next season. “Next year I will be switching to playing open (professional),” Crockford said, who loves “the competitive aspect of it.” It’s not likely Crockford will get rich quick as a professional disc golfer. There was no prize money in the Open division at the Lando Open. But at Adrian, where Crockford won his Amateur division, there was a purse of $1,990. Pro Jimmy Seechan, of Rochester, won a first-place prize of $500. But top pros, on the other hand, are doing pretty well. Paul McBeth of Huntington Beach, California, has earned almost $530,000 in his career, including $6,000 in this spring’s Dynamic Discs Open in Emporia, Kansas. In 2019, a record $5.6 million was earned during PDGA events. The PDGA dates back to the 1970s, after “Steady” Ed Headrick first invented the Frisbee (in 1966) as an employee of the Wham-O company, leaving there and eventually inventing the Disc Golf Pole Hole in 1975. But the growth in disc golf has really accelerated from 2014 to 2020, according to PDGA figures, with a near doubling of course numbers from 4,723 to 9,392 throughout the United States.
A definite need for improvement — attracting more female disc golfers — has been a difficult goal, according to regional disc golfers. Within the PDGA, 93% of registrants are male. At the May 1 Lando Open in Mankato, of the 96 disc golfers, only seven were women. Chad Hillesheim, of St. Peter, believes, like in regular golf, having women’s tee boxes to shorten holes would attract more female disc golfers. He’s planning such design concepts for St. Peter’s Riverside Park disc golf course, shortening up some of the holes for junior, senior and women golfers. Hillesheim is also hoping to help spearhead future redesign efforts at Land O’ Memories. More and readily accessible restrooms on courses would also likely help, disc golfers say.
St. Peter course
“Riverside Park is nestled on the banks of the Minnesota River. This 18-hole park is primarily made up of a combination of large mature trees and small immature trees and thicket.” — Udisc website. Most regional disc golfers love the recreational aspect of the game. It’s outside, a big plus since the pandemic hit. And most players can relate to their days MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 27
Lando Open: Four disc golfers head into the woods toward a hole at the Land O’ Memories disc golf course. Photo by Dana Melius tossing a Frisbee. Crockford is one of several regional disc golf enthusiasts who have spearheaded efforts to heighten awareness for this growing sport. He and Hillesheim are among disc golfers who participate regularly in the Mankato leagues at Land O’ Memories. Hillesheim spends most of his time at the Riverside Park disc golf course just off Highway 22 on the southeast edge of St. Peter. Nearly every day, including winter, he enjoys the 18-hole layout through the woods. “I put a lot of time on the course,” says the 38-year-old Hillesheim, who works in Chanhassen but gets back to St. Peter by 2 p.m. and typically enjoys a round of disc golf. “But this course is not very friendly for beginners.” Ed Lee, executive director of the St. Peter Chamber of Commerce, credits Hillesheim’s presence and work on the Riverside Park course for its growing local popularity. 28 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
“He has done so much for that course,” Lee said. Lee, like Hillesheim, plays every day. He started playing recreationally in 1983 at Lone Lake Park in Minnetonka. “I’ve been fanatical about disc golf this year as I have played every day,” Lee admits, including winter rounds. But he enjoys the Riverside Park course best in the early spring, before the growth of trees and brush. “It’s as much about walking in nature’s fresh air with friends as it is about throwing plastic saucers,” Lee said. “I’ve played with only fellow fanatics; it’s that addictive. Everyone I’ve seen gets hooked and just loves it.” Lee’s among those who’ll take a weed-whipper to clear out some of the growth around the course. While St. Peter city workers do mow the fairways from time to time, Lee and Hillesheim note it’s primarily a volunteer crew that keeps the course up. Hillesheim received a donation from the Mankato Jaycees, in
conjunction with the Mankato Area Disc Golf United organization, to improve the tee platforms at the Riverside Park course, doing much of the construction himself. “Three years ago you could come out here and be the only one out here,” Hillesheim said. “Within the last few years, it’s really blown up.” Lee agrees. “It’s easy to see why disc golf’s popularity is rising with all ages,” he said. “Disc golf is low cost, challenging, social and active.” Riverside Park’s disc golf course, established in 2004, has at times been under water due to flooding of the Minnesota River. But the recent Highway 22 reconstruction and secondary bridge have eased that problem, Hillesheim said. He, like many serious disc golfers, carries a bag full of discs. Some are designed to fly a long distance on the golfer’s opening shot toward a basket some 300 to 400 feet away from the tee platform. Others — the “putters”
YOUR LOCAL
HOME
LOAN
EXPERTS! Ed Lee, dedicated disc golfer, throws a disk at the St. Peter Disc Golf Course. Photo by Pat Christman — are smaller, made easier to land in baskets (the holes). Lee owns 30 discs but typically only uses five on a course. It’s similar for Hillesheim. “I started disc golfing in 2008 just because it was cheap entertainment and I had a couple of friends that were starting the sport,” said Hillesheim, a New Ulm native. “The first course that I ever played was Nehl’s Park in New Ulm.” But he also loves seeing others enjoy the Riverside Park course. “When I moved to St. Peter in 2016, I had a main goal of improving the local course,”
Hillesheim said. “It became so overgrown that it was almost impossible to play without losing discs.” Lee considers Riverside Park a top-five state disc golf course. But he acknowledges it takes a step or two back when the summer growth takes over. The three regional disc golf enthusiasts all list the same three courses as tops on their lists, with Blue Ribbon Pines in East Bethel as No. 1. The others include Kaposia Park in South St. Paul and the three-course disc golf complex in Fairmont at Cedar Creek Park. MM MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 29
Food & Beer
LET'S EAT!
By Dan Greenwood
SOUTHERN MN STYLE Lola American Bistro owner Lacey Lueth.
OH, LOLA!
New Ulm restaurant, food truck feature eclectic menu Photos by Pat Christman
L
ola – An American Bistro, a popular restaurant serving breakfast and lunch in downtown New Ulm since 2009, has a menu that owner Lacey Leuth describes as eclectic. “One of my favorite things to do — it’s like a hobby — I love to go out and try new places to eat,” Lueth said. “The menu comes from having different things in different places. We twist it into our own version of whatever it was that I had.” There’s a coffee bar and homemade baked goods made
30 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
fresh daily, along with entrees ranging from Italian fare — Lueth is a chef trained in Italian cuisine — to her own adaptations of Korean, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Vietnamese dishes. Banh mi, a sandwich inspired by French and Vietnamese influences and made from locally sourced pork, is one of her personal favorites. “We buy pork roast from a company outside of Sleepy Eye called Sleepy Bison Acres,” Lueth said. “We slow roast that and then we make a ginger
hoisin glaze that goes over it. We pickle our own carrots with rice wine vinegar — it gets topped with carrot, radish and onion. That gets a spicy Saigon sauce, cilantro, fresh cucumbers and we pickle our own jalapenos.” The chicken pot pie has been on the menu since the beginning, and the hot mess is also a hit among customers. Lueth compares it to poutine, an appetizer popularized in the Canadian province of Quebec that typically involves a large plate of french fries smothered in
Top: Mason Tesch cuts fresh vegetables at Lola American Bistro. Below: Rosemary fries and chicken torta sandwich. gravy and melted cheese. But as with most of the menu, Lueth and her staff make it uniquely their own, starting with slow-roasted shredded beef with homemade gravy and smoked Gouda cheese sauce over shoestring potatoes. “They (shoestring fries) get tossed in a rosemary garlic pesto that we make,” she said. “Then it gets the shredded beef on top, the gravy, the cheese sauce, more smoked Gouda and then we top it with chopped green onions.” The hot mess is also on the Lola food truck menu, along with staples such as the rosemary garlic fries with a garlic aioli dipping sauce and the banh mi tacos, an adaptation unique to the food truck. For Mankato residents, Lueth said the truck is usually parked at the Mankato Food Truck Hub in Old Town a couple of days a week in the warmer months. “The Lola food truck has a Facebook page, and we post where we’re going to be,” she said. “This year we’re going to for sure do Fridays at the Hub unless we have something else like a private event booked.”
While there are plenty of dishes that have remained on the menu for years at both the restaurant and the food truck, Lueth said it’s also always changing. “There are new things on the menu that the kitchen staff comes up with every single day. It’s the same with the food truck, too. We keep changing the menu all the time.”
What:
Lola – An American Bistro
Where:
16 N. Minnesota St., New Ulm
What they’re known for:
homemade breakfasts and lunch ranging from American to global influenced cuisine, a coffee bar, homemade baked goods MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 31
COMMUNITY DRAWS By Kat Baumann
32 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
BEER
By Bert Mattson
Checking trends and keeping the patios pact T
he theory goes that the word “patio” finds its roots in the Latin “pactum,” meaning bargain or pact. I like the idea … in the spirit of: “If you build it, they will come.” What a boon that craft beer has bucked almost a century of distribution trends and dotted townscapes with neighborhood taprooms. It’s the rare reversal, whereby the tradition of beer gardens attached to family breweries resurges in the form of patios with creative amenities. Some harken back to the age of lunch wagons by featuring a food truck or display menus from local delivery joints. Some have kitchens of their own. Games and fire pits are not unheard of, and often a little thought has been put into accommodating kids and pets. More and more there’s even a chance one is close enough to bike or walk to. What a deal! Bigger craft breweries are positioned to pour resources into branding. While aluminum can shortages — Schell’s is reportedly sourcing cans in Dubai — and other factors have spurred breweries to concentrate retail efforts on popular labels, taprooms strive to balance menus
for clientele with tastes for both innovation and authenticity. IPA continues to appear to be the analogue to burgers in the restaurant business — demand abides. While the trend toward low ABV styles definitely holds steady this year, higher alcohol offerings are shaking it off. Innovative iterations like LocAle Brewing Company’s Norselander 5.0 Hazy Double IPA (8%) have been bringing the warmth and balance befitting a local haunt. Be it a strong rotation of hazies and sours, or an honest English brown or helles you seek, remember to think local as beautiful evenings sneak up on you. Find that you favor your own patio? Maybe eschew feeding aluminum shortages and scroll LocAle’s social media for growler fill specials (and food truck features). Fruited sour beers are still t re n d i n g w i t h a d e d i c a t e d following — plus popular among the wine and margarita crowd. Like hard seltzers, they offer taprooms a crossover beverage when beer nuts come with company in tow. The seltzer craze is credited with the aluminum can supply problem. Of course sours can be an
DIY.....Enjoy in Moderation
attraction on their own. Having the savvy to stock up on cans, M a n k a t o B re w i n g re c e n t l y announced the inclusion of the lightly sour Omega Wolf Pomegranate Berliner Weisse in its sampler pack. Berliner Weisse is a typically low-ABV style with a tradition of being served with flavored syrup, well-suited for a refreshing patio session. Their other offerings can be sampled on their patio, where leashed dogs are welcome as well as supervised little ones. Food and live music features are posted to their social media. If you favor a flight at a pub or cruising a broader beer list at another taphouse, you’ll be supporting both when you buy a local label at your favored establishment. If you’re not sold already, another advantage of keeping the patios pact, is appropriate portioning in the optimal glassware. The breezy patio beer is definitely a trend worth supporting.
Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 33
WINE
By Leigh Pomeroy
Celebrating the lovely, dry rosés of southern France
S
pring and summer are perfect for rosés — light, delicious, pretty, forgiving, lovely, unpretentious and… well… just plain sexy. The great thing about rosés is that you don't have to plan to serve them. You just need a few in your fridge to pull out for any occasion — a friend dropping by, a lazy weekend afternoon, a beautiful sunset, an experiment with hors d'oeuvres, a light veggie or seafood meal. Rosés go with a wide variety of foods: Japanese sushi and tempura, Greek dolmas and avgolemono (lemon soup), Mexican snapper, southern catfish and crawfish, and (of course) Minnesota walleye. The key to enjoying rosé is to drink it young — that is, in the year after it's made or, at most, within two years. Less than a handful of rosés improve with age, most notably those from Cahors and Bandol in France, but both are difficult to find in the U.S. So the bottom line is: The younger the better. Good wine shops, in fact, sell off their older rosés in the fall so they have room to put in fresh ones when spring arrives. A lot of wine drinkers put up their noses when they think "rosé" because they have memories of the old sweet versions like Mateus and Lancers, the cheap jug stuff and the once ubiquitous White Zinfandels. But today's quality rosés are all dry. The best ones for the money come from southern France, including the Rhône Valley, and bear area names like Côtes du Rhône, Ventoux, Côtes de Provence, Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence, Costières de Nîmes and Languedoc. One of the most highly regarded appellations is Tavel, which by law only produces rosé. A good value rosé that comes from an area right next door is Lirac. Other appellations that you might find on bottles are the IGPs (Indication Géographique Protégées) Pays d'Oc (encompassing the Languedoc and Roussillon) and Méditerranée (encompassing Provence and the island of Corsica). They may be blended from several sub-appellations, including those listed above, and are of similar quality. The primary grape for nearly all these rosés is grenache, which imparts a slight mandarin and, to me, salty flavor. Other grapes include syrah, cinsault, mourvèdre, carignan, cabernet sauvignon and caladoc — a relatively new hybrid grape that is a cross between grenache and malbec. All of these are red 34 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
grapes that add unique characteristics to the rosé, like berry, cherry, spice, herbs and minerality. And all are well-suited to the warm climate of the region, which means they retain their natural acidity in the hot summer sun. More and more, some vintners are adding the white grape vermentino (also known as rolle) to the blend, which adds flavors such as pear, peach, grapefruit and even almond. Vermentino is also found in white blends from southern France, but the best pure Vermentinos come from the island of Sardinia off the west coast of Italy. Aside from taste, perhaps the best attraction of southern French rosés is that they are inexpensive. Some good ones cost as little as $10. How can the French do this? Because there are oceans of grapes in southern France and many of the producers are large cooperatives owned by the growers themselves. Their facilities are state-of-the-art and produce very high quality wines. Another reason why the wines are fairly priced is that they don't need to be aged. They're made and released to the market in just a matter of months. Is it worth spending the extra bucks for a rosé that's over $20? Unless it's from Bandol, the answer is usually "non!" Many of the higher-priced rosés are expensive because they're attached to some celebrity, such as Brad Pitt (Miraval), Jon Bon Jovi (Hampton Water), Kylie Minogue (Kylie), Sarah Jessica Parker (Invivo X) and John Legend (LVE). They're all made by large wineries, often co-ops, which produce many brands and labels of rosé. Unless you crave putting money into the pockets of people who are already rich, I would choose other less expensive offerings. The Bordeaux area also produces dry, inexpensive rosés, but these are made from cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc grapes. They tend to have more color than those from southern France, usually are fuller and less tart, and often display the slightly green olive/herbal characteristic derived from these grapes. Other great rosés come from the Loire region north of Bordeaux. But to delve into these requires a whole separate article. So go out and look for French rosés, preferably at your local wine shop. But if you can't find what you want there, wine retailers on the web offer a plentiful selection.
LIT DU NORD: MINNESOTA BOOKS AND AUTHORS
By Nick Healy
A Story Rooted Here
Photo by Sarah Whiting
A
t its heart, Diane Wilson’s debut novel, “The Seed Keeper,” is a story about one woman and her struggle against a sense of rootlessness, but the sweep of the story addresses more than a century and a half of history in southern Minnesota while distilling it into the experiences of a single Dakota family. The book begins as Rosalie Iron Wing, in her early 40s and recently widowed, leaves behind the farm where she has resided for more than 20 years. She sets off along icy roads in the Minnesota River valley and makes her way to the place where she lived as a child, until her father’s early death severed her from her family’s past. She feels she has come home, and in that dusty and forgotten cabin, with no heat, electricity or indoor plumbing, she intends to start over. “She’s lost her husband. She’s lost her father. She has no connection to family,” Wilson said. “In a way, the assimilation process that I write about in the book from 1862 on forward is culminated in Rosalie’s life. She is about at the furthest edge that all of these assimilation policies and programs have carried her family to, where she believes she is the only remaining person in the Iron Wing family.”
The story moves backward and forward in time and engages with key forces that have shaped the region and its people — from the incursion of white settlers into Dakota land in the 1800s and the U.S.-Dakota War in 1862 to the farm crisis of the 1980s and the subsequent era of corporate farming. Told through the firstperson voices of four Dakota women, “The Seed Keeper” deals with the past on a personal scale, and as always with the best sort of historical fiction, it never feels like a history lesson. Most of the story tracks Rosalie’s life, although some scenes take place long before her birth, and in Rosalie, Wilson has created the sort of character readers will be thinking about long after they’ve finished the book. She is complicated, guarded and imperfect, but she is also persistent, strong and always interesting. As a teenager in the late 1970s, Rosalie lives in a foster home in Mankato and hopes to save enough money to afford a place of her own as soon as she reaches her 18th birthday. She gets a job detasseling corn and ends up meeting the person she will eventually marry. At first, it is a marriage of necessity, not of love, and Rosalie finds herself feeling isolated among a rural community of white farm families. Through a friendship with a neighbor, Rosalie learns how to plant and care for a large garden, connecting her to the earth and, in ways she doesn’t realize, to her family’s legacy. Rosalie and her husband also struggle to navigate the challenges of being family farmers in the 1980s. They face the hardship of drought years and the arrival of an agribusiness giant that drives a wedge between neighbors and contributes to broader changes that forever alter the way of life in rural Minnesota. After her husband’s death and
her return to her childhood home, Rosalie makes her way back to a community from which she’d long been cut off and, eventually, discovers she has been living for years within a short drive of a great aunt she didn’t know about. Rosalie finds Darlene Kills Deer living in a small apartment crowded with “buckets and cans packed with precious soil,” an improbable indoor garden Darlene has maintained for one reason. “All those seeds in my closet, all that’s left of my family, they had to be planted or they’d die, just like us,” she explains. Wilson said writing her first novel was “hugely daunting on many fronts.” But since its release in March, “The Seed Keeper” has enjoyed critical acclaim, including starred reviews in Booklist and Publishers Weekly and a plug in The New Yorker. Wilson is the author of two previous books, including a 2006 memoir, “Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past,” which won a Minnesota Book Award. A Mdewakanton descendent, she lives in Shafer (near Taylors Falls) and works as executive director of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a national organization devoted to creating sovereign food systems for Native people. Having worked on “The Seed Keeper” for a decade, Wilson said, “I was hoping it would read as a book about characters and questions. It wasn’t intended to lecture about one side or another but more to raise the questions about decisions that we’ve made as human beings and what the consequences are of those decisions both for ourselves and for the seeds and the world around us.” MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 35
ANN’S FASHION FORTUNES By Ann Rosenquist Fee
From the Gold Lion Collection by Dr. Zwack, a Minneapolis-based brand known for “design imbued with music, mystery, and mojo” and for its ongoing philanthropy toward ending homelessness. Photo courtesy simpsonhousing.org.
Closet, know thyself DEAR ANN: Fashion Week MN blew my mind. However, I have no funds to buy any of it, and nowhere to wear that kind of thing in the first place. How can I feed my couture passions? DEAR READER: First of all, hooray for Fashion Week MN deciding to be mostly free and online this spring! It allowed many of us who’d never buy a ticket or make the drive to see what’s new on local runways. See how I didn’t say, “What’s new on actual people walking the streets wearing clothes?” Runway fashion isn’t necessarily daily-life wearable; it’s not even special-occasion wearable. It’s art for art’s sake. So if what you saw awakened your muse, don’t ruin it by trying to translate couture to your closet. Feed it by digging into the mission and work of the nonprofit that is Fashion Week (fashionweekmn. com), and find your place in Minnesota’s vibrant fashion design community. DEAR ANN: Why crop tops? Why are they everywhere I used to be able to buy regular-length shirts? It’s not like I’m shopping in the “juniors” section. Is this a joke? 36 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
DEAR READER: I noticed this myself on a recent citywide search for black V-neck T-shirts, which I’m seeking as my summer uniform if I can find enough of them. And it sounds like you already know this, but let me tell you, the pickings were slim. I went to every place I usually go to satisfy a style craving — AGAIN Thrift and More, Neighborhood Thrift, Salvation Army, St. Peter Thrift and the nowclosed MRCI (vive la MRCI with your delightful practice of having us pick a plastic token out of a bag to determine our discount!). Most of my discoveries of black short-sleeved V-necks went from triumph to sorrow when I lifted the hanger off the rack and found the shirt was cropped to hit at about the sternum. Irritated and bewildered, I quit the hunt. But then a few days later, I came up with a plan, and you can use it, too. My plan is to go back and buy all the black tops that were perfect except for their cropped-ness and trick them into a different silhouette by layering them with baggy black and charcoal racer-back tanks. I don’t think we need to understand why the fashion industry is shoving crop tops at us right now. I think we just need to steel ourselves for the fact they’re
out there — and then shop with the you-are-not-the-boss-of-me confidence that comes from knowing how to layer. DEAR ANN: Last year, I fell hard into #outfitoftheday because it kept me busy and distracted and I wasn’t going anywhere so my daily outfit didn’t have to meet any real standards. Now I’m hooked and I can’t keep up. Help. DEAR READER: There’s no shame in getting lost in playing dress-up, especially if it kept you sane during #StayHomeMN. But there’s for-sure shame in falling for the idea that style is synonymous with constant acquisition of new things. The #outfitoftheday concept isn’t organic, like, it didn’t spring from regular people enjoying regular use of social media. It’s an invention intended to hook innocent clothes-wearing people like yourself on fast-fashion consumption at a pace that makes no sense relative to seasons, or occasions, or anything else that would make a person actually truly need a new thing to wear.
The best antidote to hardcore #outfitoftheday addiction is an abrupt turnaround in the form of a daily uniform. It might even allow you to taper off your shopping rather than quit cold turkey, as you’ll need to acquire a few similar pieces (see above, re: my own pursuit of an all-black-V-neck summer). Give #dailyuniform a look. And for the sake of helping the planet not spontaneously combust due to cheap toxic fibers and dyes from all the stuff you’d otherwise buy and toss, don’t look back.
Got a question? Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes). Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and host of Live from the Arts Center, a music and interview show Thursdays 1-2 p.m. on KMSU 89.7FM.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 37
GARDEN CHAT By Jean Lundquist
Gardening teaches life lessons
M
y first year experimenting with winter sowing was an abject failure. I planted eight 1-gallon opaque milk, juice and water jugs with seeds. I planted seeds I was pretty sure would grow: radishes, spinach, Leysa peppers, lavender poppies, Ananais Noir tomatoes, cabbage. I also planted seeds I didn’t expect to grow, such as yucca seeds from our 2020 pre-pandemic New Mexico trip. I also planted something in one jug that I neglected to label. What did I get? One spinach seedling and one seedling in the unlabeled jug. I still don’t know what I planted in that one. It’s still not big enough to identify. I’m keeping the sprout alive because I’m pretty sure I planted it because I wanted it. After I wrote about trying winter sowing a few months back, a fellow master gardener contacted me to tell me about all her success and offered to send handouts from a class she’d attended. I guess I’d better read them a bit more closely. Good thing I also sowed some of those seeds under lights, and they flourished nicely. I will have some Ananas Noir tomatoes and Leysa peppers for my dining pleasure after all. The only thing I don’t have extra seeds for is the lavender poppies. Like every other seed starter I know, I always start 38 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
too many seeds in case some don’t germinate. Many times I planted all of them in the garden or in my grow bags. That led to some 40-plus tomato plants some years. I have to be truthful, that’s more tomatoes than two people can eat, even if we wanted to. When I was working, I’d take some into the office to give to co-workers. Larry did the same for his co-workers. Trying to act like a grown-up, since I’m retired and all, this year I composted them. But not all of them! I have tried to be generous with the plants and fruits of my labor, but I have to admit that I did manage to leverage one heck of a deal last year. For a few years now, I’ve been starting seeds for my friend Pat McDermott. He has the heart of a true gardener. He also has the recipe for his almost-worldfamous barbecue sauce, definitely a local hit, a recipe he doesn’t share easily. I got it. If you ever get the opportunity to try his barbecue sauce, by all means, dive right in. It is divine! No need to ask me for the recipe, though. I think I got it because I told him I also have Gene Braam’s mother’s Hilltop Tavern potato salad recipe, and I’ve never breathed a word of it to a soul. I never will. But this spring, so far, has not been all sunlight and
happiness. Larry always scolds me for picking the asparagus too soon. I tend to pick it as soon as the spears poke through the soil, rather than letting them grow to a good 10 inches or so. This spring I forced myself away from the asparagus patch emptyhanded for several days to give them a chance to grow more. One day I was pulling weeds and admiring how in a day or two we’d be eating our first meal. I was feeling so proud of myself. Then I heard my dog munching on something beside me. He was eating my baby asparagus. I don’t know how I can ever trust him again. Remember, we learn most of life’s lessons through the mistakes we make. That is most definitely true in gardening – at least for me. But like the T-shirt I found at the Iowa Arboretum says, “I play in the dirt, and call it gardening.”
Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021 • 39
FROM THIS VALLEY By Pete Steiner
Mission Statement I
treasure my monthly engagement with you here on the back page. Over a decade and a half, we have told tales about ancient Mankato (i.e., before Lord Hentges arrived as city manager). We have celebrated and lamented special places that are no more. We have discussed the difference between being a codger and a curmudgeon. We have related chats with some unique and colorful longtime local characters. Yet never in this column have we put forth a mission statement! In 2021, that seems almost un-American. Now, you, as I, may have served at some point on a committee charged with the task of formulating a mission statement for a company or an organization or a nonprofit. So maybe you agree, it’s time for “From this Valley” to put forth a mission statement. ■■■■ Mission statements became all the rage in corporate America about three or four decades ago, according to Wikipedia. They were designed to be a short statement of why an entity exists, what its goals are, and its primary customers, values and philosophies. Pretty challenging to get all that into a short statement. Beyond that, you were advised as well to make it compelling! Creators were advised to be “visionary” and “aspirational.” Committees and consultants would agonize over what to include, split hairs over specific words, and debate if the proposed final product was worthy. You know what they say about the committee charged with designing a horse. U l t i m a t e l y, m a n y m i s s i o n statements tended to be “a 40 • JUNE 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
camel.” Too vague. Convoluted. U n - c l a r i f y i n g . To o f l o w e r y. Professor Chris Bart at McMaster University estimates that just 10% of mission statements say something meaningful, and the concept in general has become subject to ridicule. Nevertheless, I determinedly began trying to craft one anyway. The phrases “tweak a memory,” “make it enjoyable” and “offer some insight or new perspective” came to mind. But as I attempted to be visionary, aspirational and compelling, it suddenly occurred to me — where in heck are people ever going to be able to read this mission statement if they don’t read it in this issue of the magazine? And not to put myself in their company, but does Pat Reusse have a mission statement? Or Leonard Pitts or George Will? But I read their columns anyway. (Even if George Will had such a statement, it would probably include a lot of big words that I don’t understand, some of them in French, or referring to an amendment to the Constitution that no one else has recently read.) So in the end, why bother? Thus, I ask you, how many mission statements that you did not personally work on have you ever read? How many times have you chosen one product over another because you really liked their mission statement? I am guessing that the answers to those questions are, respectively, “fewer than five” and “zero.” So maybe that’s why this column has survived as long as it has without a mission statement. People are either gonna read this **** or they’re not! So much for this mission statement. ■■■■
Postscript 1: Spotify’s mission statement reads partially, “… to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving millions of creative artists the opportunity to live off their art…” Yeah, right, that’s why they pay songwriters about a thousandth of a cent for each stream or download. Unless you have millions of streams, you make no money. Postscript 2: Another highly au courant term is resilience. It is a trait that basically means, the ability to bounce back from any form or period of stress – say, a year of COVID. Current journals, periodicals, newspapers and talk shows are filled with lessons and instructions and discussions of how to achieve resilience. I recommend simply living for a couple of months in Minnesota, which is a natural laboratory for teaching resilience. To wit, consider a 2 1/2-month stretch: On Feb. 16, we awoke to 20 degrees below zero for the second day in a row. Six days later, it was 40. A 60-degree swing, averaging 10 degrees a day. On March 7, the temperature reached 60 for the first time since Nov. 9. On March 13, it was still 57 and spring-like, the grass was greening and folks were out and about anticipating finally being released from our COVID shackles. Two days after that, on March 15, we got 8 inches of heavy, wet snow. Then in April, nothing but cool and clouds when we longed for more sun and warmth. If you survived all that to read this, you don’t need to buy a book or check some YouTube channel. You already understand; you already embody resilience. Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.
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