The Taste of Community: Foodways of Otter Tail County

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General Event Information

Take a look at the stories of Otter Tail County told by community members who know them best. Join us for two themed virtual events showcasing projects from the Otter Tail County Story Mapping Project and presented by the story mapping partners leading the projects.

Both events are expected to run an hour and a half and will feature presentations followed by short Q+A sessions, as well as virtual breakout rooms where attendees will be encouraged to share their own personal stories with the subject matter from throughout Otter Tail County. Stories shared may be collected by Rethos for inclusion in the digital map of the Otter Tail County Story Mapping Project unless participants choose otherwise.

Event #2: November 18 from 4-5:30 pm

The second event will feature two projects exploring varying foodways throughout the county.

Jon Solinger's "Common Ground: Community Garden Portraits" spotlights the farmers working the soil at the Pelican Rapids community garden. This multi-faceted project includes photographic portraits taken of the gardeners along with their own hand drawn maps of individual garden plots and interviews about how and why they raise their chosen produce. These stories will tell the ways that diverse people use food and cultivate soil to satisfy our universal need for nourishment.

"Nourishing Narratives: A Latinx Foodmap of Community Comida" by Kandace Creel Falcón will result in a multi-media foodmap exploring the tradition of food for Latinx people throughout Otter Tail County. Nourishing Narratives will examine foodways across three tiers: restaurants and workers, workers in meat processing plants, and the personal connection to home cooking in rural Minnesota. Across these three tiers Kandace will collect stories and media that are compiled into a project website to visually represent the places and people across Otter Tail County. Additionally, a series of paintings will be created drawing from the geography, symbolism, and stories collected by those interviewed. Kandace expects the collected experiences to dovetail with stories of immigration as well as the ways community is constructed and communicated through food.

About the Story Mapping Project:

The Otter Tail County Story Mapping Project seeks to explore the stories, places, and culture throughout Otter Tail County by funding creative projects led by local story mappers (organizations, historians, artists, businesses, etc.). Through these diverse projects, we are exploring the tangible and intangible characteristics that define the many communities throughout Otter Tail County and what makes them special to so many. Project themes range from lakes, cabins, town history, business history, foodways, family, saunas, and many more. Once all projects are completed in the Summer of 2021 the information will be compiled into a GIS map to visually represent the projects, the stories, and the local assets throughout the county. This project has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society.

Cover photo by Betsy Roder.