The increased national demand that fueled Ry-Krisp’s growth was rooted in a craze around the turn of the century for packaged health food. So from wholesome breads to popular sweets, the Ry-Krisp bakery was located in a hub of large scale packaged food manufacturing. Mars candy also started here when Frank Mars, a native of Glenwood, Minnesota, opened the Nougat House, and eventually started the Mar-O-Bar company, making candy bars in the North Loop and selling them all over the world. Minneapolis was a natural place for a national food brand to emerge, since soon after the Civil War, the “mills that made Minneapolis” produced the very first national food brands in Pillsbury, General Mills, and their predecessors. It is a substantial plant with a rail siding, meant to produce crackers to be shipped all over the country. In 1922 they built the plant at 824-830 Sixth Ave.

In 1913 they sold the business to a group of local investors, who turned Ry-Krisp into a national brand. Over the next decade the growing Scandinavian population in Minneapolis provided an expanding market for the Peterson brothers’ crisp bread. In 1904 the Peterson brothers opened a bakery on Lyndale Avenue. In fact, this type of cracker was traditionally produced only twice a year, and were made with a hole in the center so that they could be efficiently stored on a single rod. It was often made of rye, required no yeast, and had an incredible shelf life. Ry-Krisp was founded by Arvid and Erik Peterson, who immigrated to the United States from Sweden, and brought with them a recipe for traditional Swedish “crisp bread.” Crisp bread or knackerbrod was a staple of the 19 th century Scandinavian diet. Though the popularity of Ry-Krisp eventually declined, it has maintained a cult following beyond the closure of the factory that J.L. If you spent any time canoeing on the Boundary Waters or on long camping trips, you are probably familiar with the taste and texture of the cracker. First marketed nationally as a health food snack, Ry-Krisp became a national snack food staple. A Healthful Snack, a National Food Stapleįrom its opening until the plant’s closing in 2015, Ry-Krisp crackers were made exclusively in this plant and sold all over the world. Robinson built an eighty-two by one hundred and ten foot bakery for the Ry-Krisp company in 1922, it is unlikely that he could have imagined that the national appetite for this long-lasting Swedish crisp bread would have kept the factory in this Southeast Minneapolis location open and producing for nearly a century. Pictured above: The Ry-Krisp plant in 1925, and the building today.

Rye krisp er