PROFILES
PROFILES
EDNA STAEBLER
Bringing Mennonite Delectables from Kitchener-Waterloo
By The Ambassadors Research Foundation
This famous writer, Edna Staebler, who brought Mennonite cuisine into Canadian homes, was born in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener) on January 1906 and died on September 2006 in Waterloo, Ontario from a stroke. She is the beloved Canadian author best known for her Mennonite cook books: Food that Really Schmecks (1968), More Food that Really Schmecks (1979), and Schmecks Appeal (1987). Edna Staebler about Mennonite cuisine will always be remembered. She received the Order of Canada in 1996.
Her family routes reach back to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario (Canada) as a Mennonite farming community. She was born a decade before Berlin, Ontario was renamed Kitchener in a war-time renunciation of the town's German roots. Her family owned a successful business that supplied springs to the town's many furniture makers. She enjoyed walking to the Carnegie Library near her home and studied general arts at the University of Toronto. After graduating in 1929, she returned to Kitchener and joined a succession of clerical jobs. In 1937, her first serious writing project called The White Waistcoat that speaks of a certain distance, of a coolness in looking at the world. She enjoyed travelling throughout Canada.
Her Macleans articles on the Mennonites around Kitchener-Waterloo, went on to win the Canadian Women's Press Award for Outstanding Journalism. At 60, she had her first book, Sauerkraut and Enterprise, published as a centennial project of the University Women's Club. The book was a compilation of some of her Macleans articles, and drew attention to the Mennonite character.
The 334-pages book written by Edna Staebler, "Food that Really Schmecks," and published by Wilfred Laurier University Press, is one of the best loved cook books ever published in Canada. Enda, the journalist and writer immersed herself in Old Order Mennonite life and food after moving in with a family to write "How to Live Without Wars and Wedding Rings," for Macleans magazine in 1950. Her book is infused with her keen observations, anecdotes and a simple frank approach. Staebler's many accolades include: The Waterloo-Wellington Hospitality Award, the Ontario Senior Achievement Award, Doctor of Letters, honoris causa (Wilfred Laurier University), Silver Ladle Award (Toronto Culinary Guild), National Magazine Award (for a story about her involvement in the 1987 Cookie War), and Canadian Women's Press Club Award for Outstanding Journalism.
In addition to her volumes of much-loved recipes and a memorable legacy in traditional Canadiana, a literary award in her Staebler's name is given to honour her lasting imprint on Canadian culture. The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction was established by the writer and literary journalist in 1991 to encourage and recognize a Canadian writer of a first or second published book. The book must have a Canadian locale or a particular Canadian significance. The award provides its recipients with $3000 in annual funds and is the only award of its kind in Canada. Staebler died in September 2006 at the age of 100 years, but not before a 25-anniversary-edition of her first cookbook had been planned with forwards by Wayson Choy and Rose Murray.
Edna Staebler in 1966 preparing fresh Mennonite cookies
Covers of
Staebler's most popular books
A close friend to her, organized her 100th birthday party last January in a Waterloo nursing home.
