ADAMS — Local residents can get a taste of Norway in Adams at Little Cedar Lutheran Church Wednesday at the annual lutefisk and meatball dinner.

The dinner is from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 308 N.W. Lewiston St. in Adams. Tickets are available at the door. The cost is $14 per person and $8 for those under 18.

Jim Sathre, chairman of the dinner, said the dinner dates back to around the 1950s.

Typically more around 1,000 people are served, he said.

Lutefisk isn’t the only Norwegian dish that will be served at the dinner. Rutabaga and lefse will also be served, along with Norwegian deserts like kringla and rosettes.

The lutefisk and rutabaga served at the dinner are steamed, something Sathre said is rarely done in the area.

Volunteers at the church salted the lutefisk Monday night, and it will be steamed tomorrow in two steamers that can cook enough lutefisk to feed more than 100 people in nine minutes. The rutabaga was cooked Tuesday and will be reheated for the meal.

The lutefisk had to travel quite a ways to be served in Adams. It was bought from a Twin Cities meat market that imports the lutefisk from Norway, where it’s dried on beaches for three weeks. It’s shipped to the Twin Cities market where it’s soaked in lye and water for three weeks.

The money from the fundraiser goes to various mission projects the church supports.

The event is open to the general public. Sathre said they send out over 200 brochures to local churches advertising the dinner. In the past, some people have scheduled a trip to see family in the area during the dinner and some have come from as far away as Duluth, Sathre said.

Even within the community, the dinner is an opportunity to bring the church members together.

“The nicest thing about this whole thing is the fellowship,” he said. “We get members you don’t see in church throughout the year too often, but you always see them at the dinner.”