Growing up Danish

Teenagers Lauren Rasmussen and Jacob Hanberg are descendants of Danish immigrant families who settled in Solvang generations ago.

As the Wright brothers completed the first commercial flight in 1910, Danish immigrants arrived in the Santa Ynez Valley to build a community from scratch. Along with hand tools and determination, they brought a robust culture destined to survive nearly 100 years (so far) in the American west.
The newcomers planted crops, built a hotel to shelter families, and promptly erected two vital Danish institutions: a Lutheran church and a folk school. By 1914, they had completed Atterdag College, where students learned to love the language, music, literature and customs of Denmark.
Many new “settlers” have come to the Valley since those days—some Danish and many not—but Solvang still retains its Danish character, and Danish-American families are a living presence.
Meet two young people who are part of that tradition, Lauren Rasmussen and Jacob Hanberg.
Among the first wave of Danes to settle in the Valley, the Rasmussen family arrived in 1916, five children strong. In 1921, after graduating from Santa Ynez High School, young Jens Rasmussen purchased part ownership in Solvang’s oldest general store and launched a family business that continues to thrive.
Today, Jens’s grandson, David, runs the store, appropriately called Rasmussen’s and still located at Alisal Road and Copenhagen Drive. His 16-year-old daughter, Lauren, who represents the fifth generation of Solvang Rasmussens, often helps out.
“I work at the store a lot,” Lauren says. “It’s my summer job. I think I might come back to work in the business after college, but I don’t think Dad is going to be done running it anytime soon.”
Lauren and her parents live in one of Janin Acres’ oldest houses, a cozy home built by Jens, her great-grandfather. Her grandparents, Robert and Margaret Rasmussen, live next door. Having grown up Danish in the Valley, Lauren appreciates having family close by and sharing in the heritage of a small town.
“Being Danish here, you know everybody,” she smiles. “I like having relationships with the whole entire Valley. People I don’t even know will stop and say ‘hi.’
“You can always tell Danish people,” she adds with a wink, “by the four-finger forehead. We’ve all got big foreheads.”
Noted for their love of convivial dining, Danes throughout history have celebrated over food, and traditional sweets figure prominently in Lauren’s sense of ethnic identity.
“Aebleskivers are one of my favorite breakfasts,” she reveals. “We make them on my birthday. And at Christmas we make kransekage cake, a Danish cookie that you stack. They’re really good, like a sugar cookie with vanilla icing.”
During Danish Days, Solvang’s annual salute to its cultural foundation, Lauren gamely dresses in traditional skirt, apron and cap, despite the heat of late September.
“There are so many layers and it gets so hot,” she says “but we all meet on the street, make aebleskivers and hang out in our outfits. Then maybe we’ll meet up at someone’s house for dinner. A lot of kids tease us,” she adds, “but I always have fun. They may make fun of us, but they love our food.”
Another wave of Danish immigration in the 1960s brought Paul and Asta Hanburg to the Valley, where they purchased the Solvang Shoe Store just in time to cash in on the clog craze. Flush with success and eager to contribute a touch of Denmark to his adopted town, Paul built a replica of Copenhagen’s Rundetaarn observatory on Alisal Road, a landmark that continues to charm visitors and locals alike.
Paul’s son, Max, worked at the shoe store as a teenager and in 1997 bought the business from his father, something his son, Jacob, 16, hopes to do one day.
“I want to start working there in the next couple of years,” Jacob says. “I’d like to come back here after college and take over the business. I’ll probably settle in the Valley,” he adds, “I kind of like it here, because I fit in, even though I’m only half Danish.”

Jacob, whose family lives in the house his grandparents once owned, revels in the celebrations and cuisine of his distant homeland.
“My favorite holidays are Christmas and Danish Days,” he says. “On Christmas, all our family comes over and the food we eat is traditional. We do a big bowl of pudding with one almond in it, and if you get the almond you win a marzipan pig.
“There’s herring and liver spread,” he continues, “and pumpernickel bread with raw ground beef spread like paste. Mom cracks eggs in half, puts the egg inside the shell and puts the shell on top, inside onion circles. Then you pour the egg over it. It’s called beef tartar and lot of people don’t eat it because it’s weird, but I eat everything.”
To be part of the fun as well as honor the tradition, Jacob pitches in during Danish Days, helping with set up and clean up, and sometimes even cooking aebleskivers.
“I like all the food,” he admits, “Danish sausage. And aebleskivers, I love those. Every year they have an aebleskiver eating contest and two years ago I came in second. All three guys won an aebleskiver pan.”
Admittedly a child of the sunny fields of Solvang, Jacob values his ethnic roots. “I don’t think it changes anything in me,” he says, “but I like to know where I’m from. I just know my family’s Danish, I’m Danish.”
Nearly a century after Danes settled the Santa Ynez Valley, their culture defines the local flavor. And as long as people with names like Rasmussen, Hanburg, Jensen and Nielsen call Solvang home, aebleskivers and the homespun pageantry of Danish Days will continue to thrive in the American west.