- [Producer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat jingle) - [Narrator] Coming up next "Off 90," a 100-year-old bakery in Winona.

Pipe organ makers in Collegeville.

An organization that serves the Hispanic community in Southeast Minnesota, and in Zumbrota, a Covered Bridge built in 1869.

It's all coming up next "Off 90."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (orchestral music) - Bloedow's has been around for 100 years.

The only donut shop that I'm aware of that's been around this long.

Our customers are so faithful.

Sometimes I think they like waiting in line on a Saturday.

It's down the block, sometimes around the block.

But if you kind of go out there and just kind of see what they're all doing, they're all laughing, they're talking.

That's really why we are still around today.

We can't say enough about our customers that they just love us.

(orchestral music continues) - The Winona community is awesome.

They're our main supporters, we get a lot of tourists.

- Okay, that's all for you guys?

- [Hugh] But come winter when nobody's really around, we have regular customers, we have customers who come here every day.

Best customers in the world, I think, the Winona community.

(orchestral music continues) - So tonight, we are going to have our bakers, they'll start coming in about 11:30, 12 o'clock.

They start right away mixing donut doughs and bread doughs in the big mixers.

They will have those going, mixing, scaling off all the ingredients.

One person is gonna keep rolling the donuts out for about three hours or so.

They're gonna scale out bread, they're gonna mold that into loaves.

Bun dough is next, and then they will scale off those.

Those will go in the proof box for 45 minutes to an hour.

Then after that, then they'll all get baked in the oven.

- I do believe this oven is the centerpiece of our business.

It's the oldest piece of equipment we have.

It was purchased in 1937 outta Chicago.

It's an eight-shelf reel oven, so we can fit up to 32 full sheet pans in here and there are no replacement parts.

So if anything breaks, we have to fix it ourselves or have it made.

- For bread, we make about seven different types of bread.

We do not make the volume of bread like we do donuts.

So on an average day, you're looking at probably anywhere from 250 dozen to 350 dozen donuts a day.

Buns, you're looking at probably 300 dozen.

Bread, yes, we do sell the bread, we do sell quite a bit, but it's still not quite up there with the donuts, everyone likes their sweets.

One guy fries every donut in the place.

Once they're fried, he puts 'em on pans, puts 'em on racks, and then they go in front of fans to cool.

Then our froster start coming in, staggering in about anywhere between 1:30 and two o'clock in the morning.

Frosting is done everything by hand.

So they'll have chocolate frosting, white frosting, whatever we're making for the day.

We do have orders every day that we deliver to certain gas stations in town, several restaurants in town.

So we'll get those orders ready for deliveries, do those orders first, and then the rest will be for the customer pre-orders and then to go sell in the store.

And we start our day, everything needs to be out by 6:00 AM.

- [Speaker] Ernest Bloedow's Dream became reality in 1924.

Together with his wife Mary, their bakery became a family business in Winona, where it was known as Bloedow's Little Bake Shop on Broadway.

Business flourished and was passed down from one generation to the next.

In 1941, Ernest and Mary's daughter Mildred and her husband purchased Bloedow Bakery.

Their son Ernest and his wife purchased the bakery in 1984.

Finally, in 2004, the bakery was sold to Hugh and Mary Polus, the first owners from outside the Bloedow family.

- I started out as an individual donut froster, then I was a donut fryer.

While I was frying, then I started doing delivery and then after that I started working part-time on the bench with the full-time guys.

After about 10 years of working here full-time, Ernie approached me and said, "Hey, would you be interested in buying this someday?"

Bloedow's has been a success for so long because nothing has ever changed.

That was one of the things they drove in my head before we bought it, is do not change anything.

The basic dough, everything, the same flour we've been using for that 100 years.

(quiet chatter) - So for the 100th anniversary, we don't want to just take one month and celebrate it, so we're gonna celebrate it through the whole 12 months.

We're just gonna keep everybody guessing and they'll be able to see what we're gonna have next.

- I'm actually going to visit my aunt who lives in Holman, and whenever I'm in the area, I have to stop and get Bloedow's.

I've lived on all the coasts, and these are still the best yeasted donuts that I've ever had.

- If you don't get there early, you typically will not get the picks you want, but because they've been around for so long, they know their demand and they know how their customers ebb and flow.

Bloedow's is top tier, nothing will beat them.

We are so lucky to have them right here in Winona, Minnesota and to have them for this long is honestly a treat.

(upbeat music) (gentle organ music) (gentle organ music continues) - We've been building furniture for the last 160 years here at St. John's.

Monks and lay craftsmen, and we've been doing this mostly from wood from our own forest here on campus.

(power tools whining) Organ building's a new venture for us, but it's an old venture for Benedictine's.

As since the 9th century, Benedictine's have been involved in organ building and it has really become the sustaining instrument for our life of prayer.

It's what guides us every day.

Morning prayer, mass, evening prayer, compline, it's another voice of our community.

(gentle organ music continues) We wanted or needed a woodworking shop update for about the last 60 years, and every manager of the woodworking shop has tried to build a new woodworking shop, but we just never were able to get enough energy behind it to actually get it done.

When one of the directors was retiring he said, "You know what?

Let's give it one more shot."

And while that was happening, Martin Pasi, the organ builder, was here expanding our own organ in the abbey, and he heard of this idea and he brought it forward and he said, "You know what?

I hear about your new venture.

You want to expand the woodworking shop.

Would you ever think of incorporating an organ building studio?"

(pipe honking) And once I heard more from other people in the community and the wider community about what this could be, it really just started to fit hand in glove of this could really work.

(gentle organ music continues) (choir singing) For St. Benedict in the fifth century, he welcomed monks from all different classes.

The aristocratic to the lowest farm worker that was out there, and they would come into a community.

And one of his ways to bring about equality in the community was that everybody would spend a good chunk of their day doing manual labor, no matter your background.

This was part, not only of providing for the community, but also part of the spiritual formation.

And so Benedict is really seen as giving a positive look on work in the western world.

He's seen as it's no longer just something we toil at, but something that also beyond just the practical really is a way to live out our gifts and talents as well.

(gentle music) And so in the monastery, when you start in the monastery, you will do a lot of manual labor.

But over the decades and centuries, for legitimate reasons, manual labor has become less and less in the community.

We no longer have a farm, a blacksmith shop, a cobbler and those sorts of things.

And so we're really at a point of, does manual labor have something to say to us as Benedictines?

And it definitely does.

(upbeat funky music) We make dorm furniture, beds, desks, bookcases.

For the monastery, we'll make wardrobes, desks, tables, custom bookcases, case works that also goes into specific places.

And then there's other things that we produce for outside, such as Bible cabinets for the St. John's Bible, different versions of that, urns, coffins, caskets, and then a whole array of of smaller things.

(hammer thwacking) And so right now we have future organ builders approaching us, that maybe they love the organ or maybe not, they just like the physics or the mechanical or the building behind it.

But they see this as a real opportunity to get into this trade.

(pipe honking) - This is tin, it's kinda stiff.

(press thudding) Now we're gonna do the same thing with the length.

Lead is much softer, still quite strong when it's standing up and structurally put together in a column, then it's becomes very strong, standing for hundreds of years.

(pipes chiming) - So we spent two weeks out in Roy, Washington, packing up Pasi Organ Studios.

They'd been there for 35 years.

And just going through the amount that was there was daunting.

What does it all do?

Do we need it or not?

And seeing it arrive today on these flatbed trucks and make its way into the space, it just felt like a uniting of these two entities that we really hope for the future is gonna be just a real symbiotic relationship, of using skills from woodworking, asking for them design influence and having his equipment in our shop now, I don't know, it just felt that this is becoming a reality more than it's ever felt before and it felt right.

So in the building, there are gonna be a lot of loud machines.

(power tool whining) There have to be places that are less loud that you can concentrate on the sound that's coming out.

- [Martin] This whole area here is all about the sound quality and then the length from here to here, that's all about pitch.

(pipes chiming) And now I'm going to use this to make just this tiny little nick and that will calm down the wind band and somehow will make calm down the pipe, the speech.

- And I think that's why this project really found the legs that it did.

It hits many people at different interest levels.

So first you have the people who are organists, are organ aficionados that like organs.

There's other people who are interested in the project, not for the organs but for the craft.

And there's other people who are in it because they want to see on a college campus.

The manual trades have a place.

So all of these things are starting to come together.

And so it's bringing together a whole array of supporters and benefactors to say, "You know what?

This project is big enough where I have a place in it and where I want to get behind it."

(flutes wailing) I really want to see this become, you know when people think of St John's, they think of St. John's Bible, liturgy, the university, prep school, that this just isn't a nice cute thing that somebody thought up and has gone to the wayside, but becomes part of what we're known for here at St. John's, and that people are attracted to this community because of.

They see this and they say, "Yes, I wanna be a part of that."

(uplifting organ music) And so this is a new venture for the 21st century of of Benedictines, to bring this craft of building organs one by one, handcrafted, but into a new generation of organ builders that can carry this tradition on, that's been so well lived out over the centuries.

(uplifting organ music continues) (uplifting organ music continues) (uplifting organ music continues) (upbeat music) (speaking Spanish) - Alliance of Chicanos, Hispanics and Latin Americans.

- It's a non-profit organization to serve the southeast part of Minnesota and we're trying to be the bridge between our Hispanic community and local resources or agencies that provide services here in southeast Minnesota.

- It was founded in 2004 and our goal is to empower the Hispanics and to get them to be the best person that can be.

We offer many different opportunities for them through education, through civic engagement, through health services.

- [Miriam] ACHLA was formed after several people getting together, trying to bring unity in the ethnic groups because we are so different in the Hispanic community.

- Some friends in the community realized that there were some newcomers and some of us who have been here for a little bit longer, so we tried to help each other.

- [Miguel] We currently have a board and we're trying to have committees that addresses the needs that we hear in the community.

Right now we have a health committee, cultural committee, business or entrepreneurship, and just try to share information, because I think that's the key.

- [Gloria] One of the first committees that they established, it was education, as they need to see the students flourish and support the families of the students.

- We formed the Juntos club that was mainly with the purpose of education and to be able to bring some enrichment to the community.

When we were able to do some of the enrichment programs and we got together all the Hispanic volunteers that could come and work with the migrant students, that's where the beginning of ACHLA happened.

The school is doing their part, they're doing an awesome job doing the social and emotional learning, but what if the parents do not understand what their children are learning in school?

So we had to bridge those gaps so the parents are able to understand that we all together will solve that problem.

So ACHLA and the people that we work together, that's how we bridge the gap.

Mainly we have that connection with the schools to be able to provide support in math and English.

English for adults.

- [Gloria] We do civic engagement opportunities.

- Where we try to bring awareness of the importance of being civic active in our community at all levels.

It could be a school, can be a church, those kind of things.

(upbeat guitar music) - [Gloria] We have annual events.

One of them is the bike swap that is usually in the beginning of the season, which is in May.

People bring their old bikes and they can get a new bike.

(upbeat guitar music continues) - We are very social, so whenever we are doing any events, we try to outreach to the community in a way that we help each other to become successful at anything we do.

- We also do the Latino Fest, that is a part of our education committee.

Latino Fest is an opportunity to showcase our heritage.

We are very different from each other.

Latinos, we share our language, but we have very different traditions, we have even food is different, dances are different, music are different from each other.

But we see ourselves as brothers and sisters.

We come together and do a celebration together.

At the same time we educate the Rochester community about who we are as Latinos.

It is just to showcase our heritage and also celebrate the beginning of Hispanic heritage, which is September 15th to October 15th.

(upbeat guitar music continues) We do some small events that we create depending of the needs of the the community.

We had the Cuide tu mente as we saw the need of the mental health.

We did an event for some ladies during that event.

We have an education section.

NAMI was our guest speaker, who was able to explain what is mental health, what are the symptoms that they can trigger our emotions.

We have some treats for them such as a massage, so they can experience what is being relaxed.

Within the guest speakers, we explain where they can get the resources that they may need, and provide that information to them.

As a partner, we also partnered with the city.

We participated in the welcoming days.

Our partners believe in us because we are honest, we deliver, we are reliable.

In many ways, we are a bridge, we are helping each other.

We are helping the Rochester area by providing our skills and be able to empower our Hispanic community.

At the same time, the city of Rochester need the skills of our Hispanic community and we also provide that service as being the bridge to them.

- If you wanna learn more about ACHLA and you want to be part of it or just connect with us, you can find us on our website that is gonna be appearing here on the screen and also you can find out on Facebook on the ACHLA, Alliance of Chicanos, Hispanics and Latin Americans.

For everybody, if you're watching this, just wanna let you know that you're someone, if you wanna be part of ACHLA you're welcome, and you're welcome here in Minnesota.

(upbeat guitar music fades) (upbeat music) - It was built in 1869, so it's just about 155 years old.

It's the oldest timber and truss bridge in the state of Minnesota.

I'm Todd Hammel, mayor of City of Zumbrota and we're standing right outside the Covered Bridge here in town.

Everything is original on the Covered Bridge.

It spans about 123 feet across the Zumbro River.

Back in the old days, people would use the horse and buggy to cross to get to the other railroad to jump on the train to go here or go there.

So now it's just more contemporary use and more for foot and bike traffic.

City residents and tourists will use it for walking and bike pathing 'cause we have several miles of trails that go through a park and through Goodyear County that they can use.

We have soccer and kids use it to get to the soccer fields, and to the tennis courts and to the volleyball courts and the kingdom kids, the play area down there.

The campers, we have a campground in the back of the Covered Bridge Park that the people use to get to town, to get groceries, to get gas, to visit the establishments down on Main Street and all our neat little shops that we have on Main Street.

(gentle music) The value of us still having this is the historic, the structure, the cosmetics of it is very important to the residents that have been here a long time really enjoy that and think it's a very valuable bridge for the city to have versus the old contemporary concrete bridge or a walking path that other cities have to cross the river.

(gentle music continues) So we have several tours from out of state that'll stop and take pictures and look at it 'cause they've read about it, they've heard about it, so they wanna look at it and see it.

We have a lot of information outside the bridge that tells the history of the bridge and how it got here.

The bridge was roughly moved in 1970.

The current location of the bridge right now is about 1,000 feet from the original location of it, which since has been replaced by a concrete bridge like all bridges use 'cause Highway 58 is a state road so it's heavily trafficked.

So we get over 40,000 cars through this town, so we needed to make a contemporary, and we wanted to keep the bridge here, so we moved it about a thousand feet up the river to keep a historic value to the city of Zumbrota.

We've had a roof collapse from a heavy snow back in February of 2019, which we had to get the roof removed and then get all custom wood saw cut.

We had to redo that with original structure of woods.

We couldn't use your typical 2x4's.

It all had to be the rough cut timbers to build the truss when we had that damage from the snowstorm.

And we had to get the roof reconstructed in the old wooden tap, the wooden-cut wood, so we couldn't use nails and timbers from the local department store.

So we had to get replaced with the original rough-saw timbers and old style nails.

The square nails with the big square heads.

Historic center had to come and verify that we're doing it back to bring it back to the original construction.

(upbeat guitar music) This bridge has seen a lot of flooding in our Covered Bridge.

I mean it's seen water a foot or two from the base of it and it still stands strong through all the floods and the traffic over the years.

Back in the day it was just called the bridge.

But now over the years that it's been historic and it's the oldest truss-Covered Bridge in the state of Minnesota, now it's been designated as the Covered Bridge.

We have a lot of folks from Minnesota, from around the United States that come and see or look or take pictures next to the Covered Bridge.

56-unit apartment complex that was built about three blocks from the Covered Bridge Park, and part of they wanted to bring the history to the building of the Covered Bridge, so they got a shape and the color that they matched from the bridge that looks like the Covered Bridge on the apartment complex.

We do have our town festival, it's called the Covered Bridge Festival.

Usually the third weekend in September.

So we have all our vendors down in the park and car show, and we have live music and different things going on.

I think there's a three on three, and it's right at the base of the Covered Bridge at the Covered Bridge Park.

So it's always in the background.

You always see pictures that people have taken with the bridge with their kids on soccer or their kids having a snow cone at the Covered Bridge Festival.

We get a lot of traffic downtown 'cause we have a lot of neat little shops and that bring, they'll shop, and they'll look at the Covered Bridge and they'll have a picnic at the Covered Bridge Park just with the river going through it and all the amenities we have to offer.

The Covered Bridge has really become a focus point for the city of Zumbrota.

(upbeat music fades) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat jingle) - [Producer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.