WLBOTT recognizes the controversy surrounding the title “World’s Largest Ball of Twine”, and we take no stand.
However, friend-of-the-BLOTT JA#2 has suggested a visit to Darwin, Minnesota.
Darwin
Darwin In Pictures
A Cry for Help
We find it a bit presumptuous that if you are considering visiting the Twine Museum, they encourage you go get help, but upon reflection, we agree. (Explore Minnesota)
Getting There
Getting There: Challenges
It is challenging to get to Trouble #2 from a few of our WLBOTT satellite offices.
Qaanaaq
Lake Titicaca, Peru
We suggest you depart from Lima, Peru.
The Many Moods of the Darwin Water Tower
Inspired by the Wikipedia image by Based on the original work by By Self-created photograph by Jonathunder – Own work, GFDL, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64092752
Details
Hey, Look What We Found!
Will There Be a Buffet?
We’re excited to check out Trouble #2 in downtown Darwin.
From their Facebook page, the Trouble #2 looks like a good meet-up place for the Elders.
Friend of the Smelt
WLBOTT has long been a friend of the smelt. This dovetails perfectly with our visit to Darwin.
For 61 years the Darwin Rod and Gun Club has continued a tradition of serving up baskets of a small species of fish with a unique taste at its annual fish fry.
As the fish fry season gears up during Lent, area clubs, churches and organizations host a plethora of fries around the county. However, Darwin Rod and Gun Club’s one-day fry has a specialty: smelt.
The crunchy, chewy, beer-battered fish, potato salad and coleslaw draw a crowd of more than 1,000 to the annual all-you-can-eat fish fry each year. Around 2 p.m. Friday, the Darwin Rod and Gun Club was packed to capacity with members, non-members and smelt enthusiasts.
Peeling potatoes for hours sounds tough, but the volunteers are incentivized. When someone peeling potatoes raises their hand, Cropp brings them a bloody mary, Franzen said.
“They enjoy doing it,” he said. “It’s not work to them. Most of them are 70-90 years old. They can’t do as much activity as frying demands, so we have them peel potatoes.”
The volunteer crew peels potatoes for around 12 hours – from 12:30 a.m. to noon. Franzen said the recipe has been tweaked over the years.
Franzen said the problem with having a smelt-only fish fry is that the smelt are disappearing.
“The fish in the Great Lakes are eating them, such as salmon,” he said. “There was an old tradition where we would go up to Duluth and get buckets of smelt. Now, we have to go as far as Michigan or Ontario.”
According to Minnesota Sea Grant, an extension of the University of Minnesota, the “smeltdown,” or disappearing smelt, can be attributed to a few factors. Stocking efforts by Michigan fishery managers of smelt to maintain the Atlantic Salmon population in the Great Lakes in the early 1900s failed, but in 1912 when smelt were introduced to the Crystal River in Michigan, the population expanded. The fish quickly spread to the Great Lakes but experienced an unexplained decline in population in Lake Superior in 1979. The report contributes the lack of smelt to the increase of predator fish. Predators are feeding heavily on smelt and even prefer smelt to the more abundant cisco as food, the report states.
Crown River Media
The Smelt are too small? Really?
From a Restaurant Guru review:
