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Minnesota News
Emily Bright

Food, history and rutabaga bowling: Iron Range Pasty Festival takes place Saturday

Pasties made by volunteers for the first Iron Range Pasty Festival
Pasties made by volunteers for the first Iron Range Pasty Festival are seen at the Common Ground Community Kitchen at Messiah Lutheran Church in Mountain Iron, Minn., in September 2019.
Photo by Melissa Roach

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Food, mining heritage and sustainable agriculture will come together Saturday in northern Minnesota at the first Iron Range Pasty Festival.

Pasties are hand-held pies traditionally filled with potatoes, onions, rutabagas and meat. They often were carried by miners for a hot meal at work.

“You know, lots of things can divide us up here on the Iron Range, and food can unite us. And pasties for sure can unite us,” said Marlise Riffel, who’s on the board for the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability which is helping organize the event in Mountain Iron.

Melissa Roach, executive director of the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability, said volunteers have spent the past two weekends making 834 pasties from local ingredients.

“We're a mining region, and we just want to emphasize food, and locally grown food at that — and so we're marrying the two together, in hopes of elevating a conversation about food and our region and the mining heritage,” Roach said.

The festival also includes craft beer, a trivia contest, and family-friendly events, including rutabaga bowling. The event begins at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Mountain Iron Community Center; tickets are available at the door. Find more information here.

The money raised will go toward sustainability projects across northern Minnesota.