Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

“Prost!” to Oktoberfest in Dundas September 22, 2025

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Raising their commemorative bier mugs at Oktoberfest in Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

BIER FLOWED. Musik pulsed. People of all ages danced and sang and visited and ate and drank, simply having a wunderbar time in the small town of Dundas. Randy and I were among the fest-goers, celebrating our first ever Oktoberfest Saturday afternoon. Why did we wait so long?

Dancing to the musik of The Bavarian Musikmeisters. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

This, for lack of a better phrase, was a whole lot of fun.

Deutsche costumes were prevalent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Lots of hats decorated with pins. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Dancing in Deutsche costumes and street clothes. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

The mood proved jovial, festive and cheerful. Attendees really got in the spirit of the day, arriving in costume—lederhosen and dirndls and hats adorned with pins.

Chapel Brewing in Dundas served bier, cider and non-alcoholic drinks. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
An assortment of mugs and steins sit on a picnic table. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
A stash of bier kegs at the Chapel Brewing tap tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

I arrived not quite knowing what to expect. Clearly many were seasoned in Oktoberfest, carrying their own massive steins and mugs to Chapel Brewing’s bier tap wagon. Lines formed outside the local craft brewer’s bier dispensing site.

Attendees celebrated inside and outside tents on the festival grounds in downtown Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
The Bavarian Musikmeisters perform under the big tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
The song leader first taught attendees how to pronounce the Deutsche words before leading them in a boisterous drinking song. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Under the big tent, crowds packed the space to overflowing. Here the 35-member Twin Cities-based band, The Bavarian Musikmesiters, performed Deutsche songs while fest-goers listened, danced and even sang in Deutsch.

Randy, left, and other contestants compete in the mug holding competition. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

When a mug holding contest was announced, Randy stepped up to join a group of guys competing to see who could hold a water-filled mug the longest. One-handed. Straight out in front, even with your shoulder. No elbow bending. Randy finished third out of eight. Not bad for the oldest among the competitors. The winner works an office job and lifts 15-pound hand weights at work. But the women, competing with each other at the same time, outlasted the men. Winners kept their mugs and got a free bier.

One of the largest and most detailed bier steins I saw at Oktoberfest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Many times people lifted their bier-filled mugs, steins and plastic cups in Prost! Cheers.

Vendors set up shop along the street next to the Oktoberfest grounds. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
A barrel train barrels along the sidewalk, returning from Memorial Park to the fest site. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Little Prairie United Methodist Church served up Deutsche foods and more. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

There was lots to cheer about here from entertainment to food and drink, a craft fair, a collector’s car and motorcycle show, and activities for kids.

A fest-goer carries his stein to the bier wagon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

I took it all in, celebrating my Deutsche heritage, trying to remember the Deutsch I learned in high school and then in college. I’ve forgotten most of the Mother tongue. No one much cared. Rather, the focus was on fun, Deutsche style fun. Prost!

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NOTE: Please check back for more photos from Dundas’ Oktoberfest.

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Supporting the arts at St. Patrick’s Day Souper Bowl in St. Peter March 15, 2024

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Chicken wild rice soup in a hand-thrown pottery bowl at the 2013 Souper Bowl. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo January 2013)

AS AN ART LOVER who also loves soup, the opportunity to buy a handcrafted bowl filled with soup proved a win-win in 2013. Today the annual Souper Bowl is still going strong at the Arts Center of Saint Peter.

Lots of handcrafted bowls to choose from in 2013. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo January 2013)

This Sunday from 3-6 pm, the Arts Center fundraiser takes place at The Capitol Room, an event venue at 419 South Minnesota Avenue in the heart of downtown St. Peter. Here attendees can choose from an array of artisan bowls hand-thrown by local potters and then filled with a serving of soup from local vendors. Cost for the soup and bowl, yours to keep, is $20.

My chosen bowl and soup. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo January 2013)

When I attended 11 years ago, I chose a simple green-with-traces-of-brown bowl for no other reason than I favor simplicity and green, nature’s hue. And I selected chicken wild rice soup because it, too, is a favorite.

Joel Moline and Thalia Taylor kneading clay during my visit to the arts center’s Clay Studio in March 2012. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo March 2012)

In the years that have passed since that pottery purchase, I have used my Saint Peter soup bowl hundreds of times. I love the shape, the feel, the heft of this original piece of usable art. This isn’t just any soup bowl, but rather one made and shaped by the hands of an artist. And that means something to me. I appreciate the work of creatives.

Diners line up for soup or chili at the 2013 Souper Bowl. The event is first-come, first-serve. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo January 2013)

And I value events like the Souper Bowl, which expose people to the arts, bring people together, build community. Sunday will be a busy day in St. Peter as this southern Minnesota city celebrates St. Patrick’s Day in a big way with a parade at 3 pm.

The Arts Center of Saint Peter, 315 South Minnesota Avenue, St. Peter, Minnesota.
The Arts Center of Saint Peter, 315 South Minnesota Avenue, photographed on a visit there in March 2012. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo March 2012)

With a cooldown expected on Sunday along with gusty winds, afternoon temps in the 30s will feel like the 20s, according to local forecasters. Seems an ideal day to warm up with a bowl of soup served in an artisan bowl.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Hearing horses’ hooves during the holidays December 9, 2022

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A horse-drawn wagon rounds the corner from a side street onto Central Avenue during Winterfest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)

LAST WEEK THURSDAY EVENING, I hurried down the sidewalk in pursuit of horse-drawn wagons along Faribault’s Central Avenue. I hoped to catch a few photos, realizing the challenges of night photography with a moving target and a new-to-me camera.

Those beautiful horses up close. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)

I try to be in the moment also, noticing details so I can convey the experience in words. But mostly on this evening I focused on catching up to those horses without falling on occasionally snow-packed and slippery sidewalks. It wasn’t easy. Hurry with caution.

And while I hastened, I felt the cold nipping my exposed fingers. Another hazard of winter photography in Minnesota. I own mittens that flip open to reveal partially-gloved fingers. But on this evening, those were stuffed inside my coat.

The horse-drawn wagon, one of two, giving free rides on a Winterfest evening. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)

In the end, I got some photos. None clear. But I rather like the blurred images, which convey a sense of movement. At one point during the chase, I was nearly slammed into by a man exiting a restaurant. It wasn’t intentional. I was walking close to the building to avoid snow and he happened to exit at the exact time I passed by.

Almost back to the starting point at Buckham Center. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)

The whole chasing-the-horses episode seems a misadventure. I should have prepared better, planned ahead, given myself more time to photograph this Winterfest event before I had to be elsewhere. But I didn’t. I expect many of you are feeling like me, somewhat overwhelmed by all you need to get done during the holidays. Shop. Bake. Write out Christmas cards. Attend holiday events. It’s a lot.

But too often we put this pressure on ourselves. We don’t have to do it all. We can choose to slow down, to hear the clomp of horses’ hooves on pavement, to hear the jingle of bells on harnesses and, yes, even to feel the bite of cold on our fingers.

A banner in downtown Faribault recognizes Winterfest sponsors last week. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo December 2022)

Enjoy a slow-paced December weekend.

© Copyright 2022 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A glimpse of Northfield’s Earth Day Celebration April 26, 2022

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A banner marks Northfield’s Earth Day Celebration at Bridge Square. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

WARM WEATHER, albeit wildly windy, drove Minnesotans outdoors on Saturday to embrace a partial-day reprieve from the cold and rain defining this April.

An overview of a section of the Earth Day Celebration. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

For Randy and me, that included a short drive to neighboring Northfield in the afternoon to check out the Earth Day Celebration at Bridge Square. I expected the event to draw a lot of locals and students from Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges. It did.

While the Earth Day Celebration happens behind them, these guys fish. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

In and surrounding Bridge Square, exhibitors shared information on topics ranging from climate change to water quality to composting to healthcare access and much more. Vendors from the Cannon Valley Farmers’ Market also set up shop. And kids created at several stations just a stone’s throw from fishermen angling in the Cannon River.

Near the river in Bridge Square, this temporary art installation focuses two messages: “NATIVE LIVES MATTER” and “CLIMATE JUSTICE.” (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

We mostly meandered, our stay cut short by raindrops. I zipped my camera inside my sweatshirt as we headed back to the van.

Bannering for a cause at the Earth Day Celebration. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

Yet, even during my brief time at Northfield’s April 23 Earth Day gathering, I felt the passion for taking care of this planet. Of being responsible stewards. Of engaging in conversation. Of doing our part.

A sign on the UPcycleMN tent grabbed my attention. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

It’s refreshing to see, especially when I observe all the exposed winter-tossed garbage along roadways and read about endangered Minnesota rivers, our shorter winters and so many other climate and environmental concerns.

An example of an upcycled blue jean jacket crafted by Kathryn Ness of UPcycleMN. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo 2022)

I delighted in meeting former Northfield librarian Kathryn Ness who identifies herself as “CEO & Head Scrounger” at UpcycleMN. Signage and jean jackets drew me to her vendor tent and a short conversation. She upcycles used jeans into “new” jean jackets, crafts cloth bags and more. Kathy reminds me of my Uncle Bob, who weaves old jeans, bedspreads and more into beautiful, durable rag rugs. They are artists who are doing their part for our earth while creating.

Bridge Square is often a canvas for chalk art, including during the Earth Day Celebration. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo April 2022)

Attending Earth Day in Northfield gives me hope. Hope because people care about this earth, this place we call home.

TELL ME: Did you attend an Earth Day celebration?

Please check back for additional posts that focus on UPcycleMN and on the temporary art installation.

© Copyright 2022 Audrey Kletscher Helbling