Embarrass celebrates National Sauna Day

EMBARRASS- Sisu Heritage hosted their third annual National Sauna Day featuring music, food, Finnish crafts, squeaky cheese, and of course, tours of area saunas.

Next year, organizers are hoping to fire up the historic Nelimark sauna and host their first-ever sauna party (swimsuits to be required).

A steady stream of visitors braved the cool and misty weather to tour the grounds of the historic Nelimark Homestead, tour the restored sauna and other outbuildings, and then stop for coffee an’ inside the restored homestead which is now a local museum.

Outdoors and luckily under tents, Casey Aro was playing ethnic tunes, and volunteers were selling lunch. Diane Childs was selling her famous squeaky cheese. Mike Salo led two bus tours of four local saunas, visiting the historic Pyhala and Hanka saunas (a regular part of the Sauna Day tours), along with two area saunas opened up to public viewing this year by Embarrass residents Chuck Neil/Mickey White (built by Neil’s great-uncle George Warho) and the co-owners of Northern Comfort Bed and Breakfast (formerly the Kangas family sauna).

Salo, who also is the tour guide for the Finnish homestead tours in Embarrass, has a wealth of local historical information, including details about traditional Finnish log home construction.

The Nelimark Homestead sauna is one of the few home saunas to earn a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This log sauna, built in the 1930s, was the largest sauna in the Embarrass community. Finnish immigrants often built their sauna first, and lived in it while constructing their house. The sauna building served as a washroom, kitchen, and even a spare bedroom for many Embarrass homesteads. An upstairs room in the Nelimark Museum features historical and current day articles about saunas, along with a nice selection of sauna accessories for sale.

The sauna tour drew afficionados from far and wide, including a friend of Glenn Auerbach who runs the Sauna Times website, who flew in from Maine to attend the event. Auerbach lives in Minneapolis but has a cabin, with a sauna, on Pine Island on Lake Vermilion. Auerbach posted a blog about the tour on his website, www.saunatimes.com, so who knows what kind of turnout the festival may have next year!

Inside the Nelimark were many museum displays, along with Finnish-themed crafts and books for sale. Fresh-baked breads and homemade jams were also for sale.

Diane Childs had brought 60 pound-sized wheels of cheese to sell, along with a locally-produced DVD to teach newcomers how to make their own cheese at home. Childs teaches a squeaky cheese making class at the Natural Harvest Coop multiple times over the year, and said it is one of their most popular classes.

“I’ve been making squeaky cheese for about 35 years,” she said, “and make a large batch about six times a year.”

Childs buys raw milk from a farmer near Cook, and has refined the cheese-making process from five hours down to one-and-a-half hours. She learned to make the ethnic treat from her grandmother, who had been born in Finland and moved to Embarrass. She said her grandmother only made the cheese from the “first milk” that came after a cow had calved, because that milk was too rich for other uses.

“I figure I have made 1,300 cheeses in the last 30 years,” she said. “Now it’s time to teach the next generation.”

The Nelimark Homestead Museum is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. through the summer. Each Friday there is fresh bread for sale. Coffee an’ is always available.