minnesota Culture - Moving to Rochester, MN Guide
So, you’re moving to Rochester, Minnesota.
Welcome! Rochester is located in Olmsted county and as much as I’d love to say we all live on the water, sadly there is no real lakes here. We do still get to keep the ‘Land of 10,000 lakes’ license plate as a consolation prize though!
But let’s get back to working on getting you caught up on Minnesota culture and customs, ways of talking, and things Minnesotans are super passionate about, so you’re ready when you move here! If you haven’t read my blog post about Minnesota words and phrases and what they mean CLICK HERE as you might want to read that first!
TALKING WITH A MINNESOTA LOCAL
When it comes to food, Minnesotans don’t know ‘what’cher talkin about’ when you start ‘talkin fancy’ and using words like casserole. It’s a Tater-Tot hot dish for pete’s sake! Lutefish is an acquired taste even by most Minnesotan’s standards, but I’m sure if you ask them ‘would it help if we added some ranch?’ The answer would probably be ‘oh yaah, for sure’. Their love of ranch dressing and dips is well known. And it would be a ’darn shame’ if you’ve never had a good cup of wild rice soup or homemade potato sausage (pronounced SAW-sidj in Minnesota). But Minnesotan’s true claim to fame is the beloved Corn Dog. It’s even made its way onto our kids’ lunch menu at school! Minnesotans claim it was invented at the Minnesota State Fair in the 1940s. and ‘ah geeze’ if you haven’t had one of those recently, ‘come with’ and I’ll buy you one, washed down with some pop or the only coffee any decent Minnesotan will drink – a delicious, home-grown, maple-infused Caribou coffee over ice, no matter the weather!
Minnesotans are very inviting and love a good pot luck, so at some point you will be invited to someone’s house. If they ask for cookies make ‘em round cause if they are square you call ‘em bars. And cranberry salad is just something you’re going to need to Google, as only a picture can fully describe that side dish. It’s strangely delicious, but why anyone would put it on a plate beside meat and veggies at Thanksgiving is still a mystery to me! It’s for sure a Midwest thing!
CARIBOU COFFEE
It’s Minnesota’s version of Starbucks. Started in Edina in 1992, it’s a true local favorite. You’ll find one on practically every city corner and tiny town throughout Minnesota and it’s delicious. The décor, apparel and coffee shop style has a very ‘Up North’ feel with lots of plaid and cabin vibes. They have lots of unique drink options and everything is available iced cause cold means nothing to Minnesotan’s who are just hardier than the rest of us when it comes to cold!
THE LAND OF 10,000 LAKES
Summers will be spent on the lake and Winters will be spent on the ice, so make sure to brush up on your swimming and skating before you get here. As the state license plates declares, Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but sadly, Olmsted county, where Rochester, MN is located, has NONE. Yup, you heard me. How on earth did that happen? But since we have over 10,000 lakes, you’re never really far from one to play in and Minnesotans love to do the ‘cabin on a lake’ thing so be sure to take advantage of that. Fun Fact: While Wisconsin claims to have more lakes than Minnesota (15,074 versus 11,482), 60% of those lakes don’t even have names – Minnesota has much stricter standards on what a body of water needs to have to be called a lake, one of which is - it must have a name. Rochester, MN does have a few waterholes. Public ones include: Silver Lake, Cascade Lake, Foster-Arend and some private options include: Manorwoods Lake, Interlachen Lake, Salem Lake and Mayo Lake which you can use if you own a home on them.
HATE PAYING TAXES?
I can’t help you with all taxes, but did you know you don’t have to pay taxes on clothes in Minnesota? We also have the largest mall in America aka The Mall of America. And with all the money you have saved on taxes, you can let your kids go wild on the indoor amusement park, check out the aquarium or have a delicious meal at one of the many restaurants in the Mall.
WHY? WE WILL NEVER KNOW!
This just needs its own paragraph. Everywhere else in America, kids plays ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’. BUT you will need to re-educate your kids before they come to Rochester that in Minnesota, despite having so many Canadian Geese, we have no goose for the game and instead play with a Gray Duck. So, the game goes as follows DUCK, DUCK, GRAY DUCK!
WHEN IT SNOWS
There are two camps when it comes to dealing with snow removal. You either LOVE your snow service or are so proud of how powerful your snowblower is. But either way, get it cleared as the city may fine you and postal workers and delivery services will not leave packages on your doorstep if the pathway is not clear for them to walk safely. Getting the kids sorted with all the layers of snow gear begins in late fall so don’t wait or you’ll be scrambling to find gear last minute. I’m a huge fan of snow tires if you can afford to have a set. They make a huge difference on icy roads. Ice activities run in Minnesotans veins, too – skating, broomball, sledding, skiing (both downhill and cross country), and ice fishing to name a few. And after all that time in freezing temps, what better way to warm up your bones than in a sauna. It’s hugely popular here, another activity presumably influenced by the Scandinavians who first settled on Minnesota’s “Iron Range”. CLICK HERE for my Winter Survival Guide Blog
THE MINNESOTA STATE & COUNTY FAIRS
Most Minnesotan and Rochester residents love the fairs and attended them routinely. Live music, animal birthing centers, every kind of meat on a stick, chocolate covered bacon, watching 90-pound blocks of butter be sculpted into girls heads, buckets of cookies, vegetable contests, seeing the sights from the fair rides, weaving through the huge crowds, tolerating the sweltering Minnesota summer temperature…what’s not to love!
THE MOVIE FARGO
First of all, while the movie is about a murder in Minnesota, there is no town in Minnesota called Fargo. Fargo is in North Dakota, across the river from Moorhead, Minnesota. In the movie, the story mostly takes place in the twin cities and Brainerd but I guess the name Fargo had a better ring to it. The story was based on a true story that took place in 1987. Google describes it as: “a story of murder, blackmail, kidnapping; a bloody account of deceit, lying, cheating and amorality”. What’s not to love? People in Minnesota do use all those slang terms you hear in the movie and have that accent but for the most part, it’s much more subtle unless you go way up north.
MINNESOTA’S FAMOUS MUSICIANS
Minnesotans love Prince, Bob Dylan, Semisonic and my personal favorite is Cloud Cult. They are so good if you can catch them live. As the band plays a concert, the lead singer’s wife creates an art piece inspired by the music during the live show and auctions it off for charity at the end. How fun is that!
THE LONG MINNESOTA GOODBYE
Coming from Ireland, I am very familiar with the Irish goodbye. A MN goodbye is the opposite, you stand around for 30 minutes saying goodbye before actually leaving. This works in reverse too. When Minnesotans come by to visit ‘just for a minute’, after 20 minutes it gets really weird where I wonder if I missed my window to invite them in and put out an entire spread of food (a concept my California husband coined as ‘Irish Over-Hosting’) but then on the flip side, when you do invite a Minnesotan in too early, they are super polite and reply something like “oh no, I just have a minute” and an hour later we are all still standing and happily chatting in the doorway. It’s a combo of them liking to be social and being super polite, so how can anyone complain about those lovely characteristic traits?
After 10 years of living here that’s what I’ve learned so far!
You may think you can resist these terms or culinary treats, but I warn you they creep up on you over time. And if you’re from somewhere else and here for long enough, see if you can add any of your own sayings into the mix. I’m pretty sure I will never say ‘garage’ the way Americans do. And it’s a word I get to say a lot, as most people want a garage to come with their new home. So who knows, if I live here long enough it might become the new way to say it, just like all the Scandinavian and German words and phrases that have become part of the culture here through the years.
If you love it so much you want to stay, be sure to give me a call and I’ll help you find a home that’s just right for you! In the meantime you can check out this blog for tips to make your move go smoothly CLICK HERE
Sandra Reid
