Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Having fun & building community at Dundas Oktoberfest September 23, 2025

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 10:27 AM
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Fest-goers, some in festive attire, gathered at picnic tables and under tents. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

ATTENDING OKTOBERFEST IN NEARBY DUNDAS last Saturday, I felt a sense of unity, of community, of celebration. It felt good. We were all there just to have fun. Even the kids.

Kids roll down the hillside near the main celebration tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love this photo of this young boy watching the adults dance. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
On the edge of the fest grounds, a place for kids to paint pumpkins. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

From dancing to painting pumpkins, riding in a barrel train and rolling down a hillside, the youngest among the fest-goers appeared to have as much fun as the adults.

Volunteers are behind the success of Oktoberfest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

I love that organizers thought of the kids. It takes a lot of man, and woman, power to run an event like this in a town with a population of some 1,800. I’m grateful to the many volunteers who stepped up so the rest of us could come and enjoy ourselves on a lovely Saturday of clouds mixed with sun and occasional showers.

Three of the remaining contestants in the women’s mug holding contest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

As I roamed the fest grounds, chatted with people, encouraged my husband in the mug holding contest, sang some German songs, watched enthusiastic dancers, drank beer, and shared savory and raspberry handhelds from Martha’s Eats & Treats, plus cheese curds from the Dundas Dukes baseball team, I thought, I’m having such a good time.

Biking through downtown Dundas past the car show, these kids wore festive German hats. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Umbrellas came out when a brief shower passed through. I ducked into a tent and used Randy’s jacket to protect my camera. I wasn’t expecting rain. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Even some of the youngest came dressed in German costumes. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

It’s fun to photograph events like this, too. To take in the activities, the details. To notice kids rolling in the grass, a boy splashing in a puddle, a toddler hidden by an umbrella, two kids pedaling a two-seat bike down Dundas’ main drag…

Loved all the German messages on shirts such as this wish for a good day to everyone. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

The adults are equally as interesting to watch. I loved seeing the happy faces, the conversations, the mixing of fest-goers in this small Cannon River town with the champion baseball team, several bars, a makerspace, Martha’s Eats & Treats, a paint store, Chapel Brewing, a big box store along the highway and more.

An enthusiastic emcee under the big tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Oktoberfest focused on celebrating German culture and heritage in music, dance, song, food, drink, dress. Whether you were German or not really didn’t matter. On this day, this gathering was mostly about having a good time, connecting, and building community among family, friends and strangers.

NOTE: Click here to read my first blog post about Oktoberfest in Dundas.

© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

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

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 3:02 PM
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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

 

From Wheeling Township, Part III: More images & words from Germanfest October 4, 2017

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:00 AM
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A farm site along Minnesota State Highway 60 near St. John’s United Church of Christ, Wheeling Township, rural Faribault.

 

IN A RURAL SETTING not far from Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, the members, families and friends of St. John’s United Church of Christ, Wheeling Township, serve not only an incredible German dinner each September, but also incredible hospitality.

 

 

Shirley checks and refills food on the serving line.

 

Even the pickles are homemade.

 

Through my many years of attending dinners, luncheons and other events at this country church, I’ve gotten to know these friendly folks—Lynn, Kim, Doug, Craig, Shirley… I can’t come and go without stopping to greet and hug sweet Elsie, who now into her nineties still works in the kitchen stirring gravy or potato salad or cutting and plating pies (during the church ice cream socials). Truly, these dinners are labors of love.

 

Here two volunteers, in ethnic costumes, take a break at the root beer stand.

 

Petting zoo animals come from a nearby farm.

 

There’s always a well put together historical display.

 

I can only imagine the tremendous time, effort and energy involved in pulling off Germanfest, an event which features more than just the showcased ethnic meal which this year fed some 650. I appreciate the country store and market that offer home-baked and garden grown goods and more. I appreciate, too, the quilts stitched by talented hands and the music and petting zoo and historical displays and more.

 

On the church altar, a beautiful harvest display.

 

There’s something divinely wonderful about a Minnesota church festival that reconnects me to the land, that brings a sense of peace in a world brimming with too much discontent and chaos.

 

BONUS PHOTOS:

This gentleman arrived from four miles away in his Model T Ford.

 

Congregants make and sell crab apple jelly from trees growing on church property.

 

Dressed in lederhosen, a volunteer pauses to enjoy the music and check out the market under the tent.

 

Lucy, seven months, and her grandpa listen to the old-time music.

 

The Ray Sands Band plays tunes like “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie…”

 

I observed these guys kicked back and relaxing to the music of the Ray Sands Band.

 

A display of German items honors the congregation’s heritage.

 

I enjoyed this over-sized woodcarving of a fisherman.

 

Church festivals are made for visiting.

 

Ice cream cones of feed for animals in the petting zoo were popular with the kids.

 

These piglets were among animals in the petting zoo.

 

Even the church windowsills are adorned with harvest themed decor.

 

One final look at St. John’s UCC as we drive away.

 

NOTE: To all my readers who wish I would have told you about this church dinner in advance, I’m sorry. Please mark your 2018 calendars for next September. Germanfest is always held around the same time annually.

But I can tell you about another outstanding area church dinner set for 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. this Sunday, October 8, at Trinity Lutheran Church, North Morristown. With a homemade meal of turkey, ham and all the fixings, it’s one of the best (in my opinion) church dinners around. The event also includes a craft and bake sale in the church basement. Click here to read previous posts about Trinity’s fall dinner.

Please check back for one last post in my four-part series from Germanfest. You won’t want to miss this final, especially endearing, photo essay. Click here to read my first post and click here to read my second post, both published last week.

© 2017 Audrey Kletscher Helbling