Diane Tott was devastated to lose her family’s beloved walnut tree when the derecho blew through central Iowa on Aug. 10. Faced with the reality of losing the tree forever, Tott had an epiphany: She would have some of the walnut lumber made into lefse rolling pins, and she would give the treasures as gifts for Christmas.

The project of turning that walnut into working rolling pins — perfect for making the traditional Norwegian flatbread called lefse — was not an easy task. Perhaps apropos, it became a story that the rich history of the tree merited, Tott said, and the results are usable works of art.

As a child, Tott spent innumerable hours playing near the tree on the Roland area farm where she grew up. Tott now lives in Ames and is retired after serving as clerk of court for 31 years. The family farm continues to belong to her mother, Esther Frandsen.

“We lived on the farm and so did my uncle and his family, so I got to grow up there with my cousins. … And my grandmother lived there until later in the ‘60s when she moved into Roland,” Tott said. “It was quite a place with many good memories.”

Over the years, the tree held a tire swing and a bag swing. And it graced the family with walnuts, which the kids would help harvest.

Tott and her family used an antique corn sheller to remove the husks. Then they washed the walnuts and let them dry, she said.

“During cold, winter nights, my dad often sat and shelled the walnuts, which my mom would later use in her baking,” Tott said. “Mom and Dad’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren have helped with harvesting.”

Tott’s family connection to the walnut tree inspired her to have it live on through another beloved family tradition: the rolling of lefse.

In late August, she contacted Gary Legwold, also known as the Lefse King, a Minneapolis man who has become an expert on the subject of Norwegian flatbread. A writer, editor and speaker, Legwold also teaches classes on lefse making.

He had been a speaker at a Sons of Norway Kong Sverre Lodge event in Story City in October of 2017, where he presented the program “Lefse, Lutefisk and the Importance of Humor.” Tott had seen Legwold speak at that event, and she reached out to him.

Could he help her figure out how to turn part of the fallen tree into five beautiful rolling pins?

Part of Legwold’s business is dealing in heirloom lefse rolling pins, which range in price from $125 to $1,200 on his website, lefseking.com. Legwold has an important connection: Bob Puetz, an expert woodturner, who could put the walnut blanks on his lathe and work his magic.

“It’s a really cool thing,” Legwold said. “This tree that was so much a part of Diane’s family now is continuing on as five different rolling pins. If you go to the Vesterheim museum in Decorah, you’ll see rolling pins there that came over from Norway and are 150 years old.

“They’re like a recipe card, they just keep on and on, picking up sentimental value.”

There were many helpers along the way to the creation of the rolling pins, Tott said.

Tott’s cousin Ron Frandsen lives across the road from the family farm and helped with the tree, which wasn’t actually toppled by the storm but was so severely damaged that it needed to be removed.

“We also got a lot of help from our tree guy, Robb Morgan, who cut it just the right length and made sure it was the good parts of the tree,” Tott said. “He tried to count the rings and it was about 90 or in that ballpark.”

Tott’s grandparents bought the farm in the early 1930s, “so it made me wonder: Did Grandpa plant that walnut tree?” she said.

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There were a few hiccups in the process of creating the rolling pins.

Diane Tott arranged for the tree trunk to be sawed into 20-inch lengths. Her husband, Bob, and cousin Ron loaded four logs into Bob’s pickup truck and took them to Legwold’s house in Minneapolis, where the Lefse King planned to put them in his Prius and haul them to Hastings, Minnesota.

But the logs were too big and too heavy for his passenger car to carry. Bob Tott saved the day and offered to drive the logs to Hastings, where they would be cut and then vacuum kiln dried.

The kiln drying caused cracks to form in some of the blanks, which put the job in jeopardy. But eventually, Puetz found blanks that he was able to carve on his lathe and expose the beauty within.

“That’s part of the attraction with woodturning,” Legwold said. “The beauty of the wood only reveals itself once you start turning it and slowly removing wood.”

Lefse rolling pins have texture, usually either horizontal grooves or a crosshatch pattern. It was important to Tott for these pins to have a crosshatch pattern since that’s the kind she and her family members have always used. She learned to roll lefse when she was about 10, but for the most part, in those years, it was the matriarchs of the family — the grandmothers and mothers — who made the dish.

Legwold explained that the texture on the pins helps decrease the amount of flour that is forced into the flatbread. Too much flour makes the lefse tough, he said. His own first attempts at making the Norwegian delicacy turned out like “lefse jerky” because he didn’t know about the impact of the flour.

“We got it done and they are beautiful,” he said of the rolling pins. “I call them functional pieces of art.”

The rolling pins have food-safe ball bearings and a steel rod to give them strength and smooth rolling ability.

“When I first saw them, I asked, ‘Are these just to be displayed?’ But Gary said, ‘No, these are definitely to be used,’” Tott said. “So we will definitely be rolling lefse with them.”

“They’re substantial and they’re beautiful — the grain of the wood and the colors,” Legwold said. “They speak for themselves, but then you put the traditional grooves in it and put a light finish on it of mineral oil or walnut oil. It really pops and brings out the beauty of the wood.”

When they’re not in use, the rolling pins will likely be displayed on special stands, honoring them as the artwork they are, Legwold said.

Tott is keeping one of the rolling pins and gave the others to her two sisters and two daughters for Christmas gifts. They will put them to good use making lefse for friends and family, she said. The wood’s source from the walnut tree would have meaning for the recipients, as well.

Stories about both lefse and walnuts have threaded their way through Tott’s family history as she and both of her sisters have incorporated lefse traditions into their holidays. And they all have memories of harvesting walnuts, an activity they didn’t always love while they were in the act of it but now all share a valuable, cherished memory surrounding that tree and its fruits.

Tott’s mom is Dutch and her dad was Norwegian, “but my mom really embraced the Norwegian heritage and lefse rolling.”

“Lefse has been a big part of our family Christmas traditions,” she said. “Our lefse is traditionally served with cod, riced potatoes, just the right amount of salt and pepper, and a hard-boiled egg and butter mixture.”

Tott and her family members roll up the lefse and hold it in both hands while eating it. “It just doesn’t taste right if you have to eat it with a fork.”