Dr. Edna Dorothy Meshke, like most of the contributors to “Maryland Cooking,” was a home economist. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: many of us have no idea how much we owe to Home Economics educators for creating, sharing, and fine-tuning classic recipes, and for raising the expectations of what a recipe can be.
Reinhold and Bertha Meshke immigrated from Germany to Minnesota in 1889. Their young cousin Fred made the journey in 1889 help the couple on their farm. Once established in America, Reinhold and Bertha had three daughters: Hazel, in 1899; Lucile, in 1904, and Edna, in 1907.
In 1930, at age 23, Edna was teaching at a public school while living in Faribault, Minnesota with her parents, who had retired from farming, and her sister Hazel, who was a nurse.
Edna earned a BS and PhD from University of Minnesota, and a MA from Columbia. These impressive credentials took Edna all around the country.
In 1938 she taught at the University at Buffalo. In 1943 she was at the University of Wisconsin. Some time in the 1940s, she led the Home Economics department at Butler University in Indiana. At some point, she worked at Pennsylvania State University. Throughout these years she continued to appear in Faribault city directories, leading me to believe that between school terms, she returned to live with her parents and sister at their home 711 1st Street.
Dr. Meshke’s time in Maryland came about in the late 40’s, when she was appointed as an Associate Professor of Home Economics at University of Maryland, College Park.
After Maryland, she headed to Santa Barbara, California. At the University of California, Santa Barbara she taught from 1948 through 1960. She spent the last five of those years as the Home Economics department Chair.
Next, she moved on to work at Perdue University back in in Indiana. At Purdue, Meshke was the head of the Clothing and Textiles department. The subject area seems to have been her specialty. In 1961 she authored a book entitled “Textiles and Clothing Analysis and Synthesis.” Her name appeared in some of her student’s theses as well as in publications like the 1965 “Laboratory Evaluation of Skirt Fabrics” conducted at the Cultural Experiment Station at the University of Minnesota.
Some of Dr. Meshke’s students work falls under the umbrella of the Humanities, such as a paper on Cherokee textiles. Edna’s own focus borders on industrial. The Lafayette, Indiana Journal and Courier wrote in 1960 about Edna spending three months in England “doing research on the effect of yarn twist on the properties of cotton fabric before and after resin treatment.”
Home Economics education influenced more than food.
Edna died in 1998 in Rochester Minnesota. She was buried with her parents and sister at a cemetery in Faribault.
I was unfamiliar with date walnut bread, and thought that “Date Sandwich Bread” was a recipe for a bread to be used in the making of lunch-type sandwiches. This was earlier during the pandemic phase when we were doing very little shopping and I was trying to find creative ways to use ingredients and stay home. Of course, I was incorrect, but I enjoyed the bread so much that I baked it several more times.
According to internet sources, Date-Nut bread originated in Scotland, and was popularized in the U.S. in the 1920s. As of my writing this, Wikipedia incorrectly states that “first recorded as a recipe in 1939.” My oldest recipe is from 1919.
It’s definitely a recipe worth making. A nice snack to have around, and easy to make. These home economists generally knew what they were doing.
Recipe:
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- .75 Cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 Cup dates, cut up
- .5 Cup walnuts
- .25 Teaspoons salt
- 1.5 Cup flour
- 1 Cup hot water
- 1 Teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Teaspoon baking powder
- butter, softened
- cream cheese, softened
Pour boiling water over pitted and cut dates, add soda and simmer 3-4 minutes. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs (slightly beaten) and cooled date mixture. Add baking powder and salt sifted with flour. Add nuts, stir well. Bake in moderate oven about 40 minutes. Hints: Store in refrigerator. Slice very thin – spread with mixture of 1/2 butter and 1/2 cream cheese.
Recipe from “Maryland Cooking,” 1948, Maryland Home Economics Association
