"Hilda's home baked bread Relished by young and old" from the March 28, 1967 Door County Advocate
By JANE SHEA
MRS. HILDA PASCHKE of Brookside Tea Garden at Ephraim is known for the wonderful home baked bread she makes. Shown above is an assortment of the varieties at which she is skilled. —Hagedorn
Hilda's home baked bread
Relished by young and old
By JANE SHEA
A stop at Brookside "to pick up my bread from Hilda," has become almost as automatic with Ephraim visitors as checking on their children.
On such loaves of bread and her own unique personality, Mrs. Hilda Paschke has developed and expanded Brookside Tea Garden into one of Ephraim's most distinctive and respected business establishments.
Hilda is the type to whom visitors turn wistfully in the hope of being remembered; one of whose neighbors say candidly, "Why, I just can't recall ever hearing a thing against her."
To be liked by Hilda Paschke is a cherished feather in one's cap. Her standards, like the loaves of bread, are basic. She is keenly attuned to sincerity, unimpressed by pretense.
"The people I like are comfortable," she comments. Her friendships range among the wealthy, the poor, the known and the unknown, and over spans of many miles.
Youngsters adore her. She has the old fashioned and highly workable notion that a friendly smile and a slice of warm bread can ease a childish problem.
Hilda Paschke, born Olive Gunhild Larson, is a native of Ephraim. But to assume that her world has been confined between Lake Michigan and Green bay shores, and that the British flavor of Brookside came out of an old National Geographic, would be way off the mark.
At 16, she was in Chicago working variously as governess, telephone operator and waitress. She went to Europe as a children's nurse, caring for the youngsters of Mrs. J. W. Morrison, one of America first Suffragettes, and a close friend of Carrie Chapman Catt. It was in England that "Brookside" was born, although it took a while for the dream to become reality.
In 1920, Hilda opened her English tea garden here. Guests sat at tables near the brook enjoying tea and scones or cookies. It was not long before the Tea Garden evolved into a more complicated operation as more and more people asked that meals be served.
Hilda was married to A. E. Paschke in 1921, the ceremony taking place in the dining room that had just been built onto the main building by her father, George Larson. This was also the place where both daughters chose to be married.
Now in the Tea Garden with their mother are Mrs. Carl Becker and Mrs. William Wedepohl, both competent and congenial people, assets to this venerable Ephraim business. Mrs. Paschke's son, Wayne, purchased his father's construction firm in 1956. Since then he has not only furthered a good company, but founded an excellent reputation of his own.
Hilda Paschke, now firmly identified with the term "good food," can take a serene look backward and admit that when Brookside began she didn't know how to bake and her knowledge of cooking in general was somewhat meager.
She credits her sister-in-law, Mrs. Reuben Larson, with giving her a number of tips. Another quiet, but potent force in the Brookside kitchen has been Miss Emma Hanson, who has worked quietly and efficiently from June to September for the past 30 years.
Famous people? There are probably a good many Hilda has served and forgotten. Or, perhaps they were so intrigued with her that they didn't feel their own identity worth mentioning.
She has served luncheons to the Duchess of Windsor, back in the days when that lady was still a Spencer. A German admiral and his family took meals at Brookside just prior to World War II. She never did learn what he was doing in the Great Lakes area during a particularly critical period.
Adlai Stevenson used to come out into the kitchen to say hello, but Hilda doesn't attach too much importance to that. After all, he was often part of the Ephraim summer picture.
The "caddy" dinners were something else. During the depression, Hilda used to feed the boys who caddied at the golf course. For 25 cents they could have all they could eat. As these boys grew up and entered many fields of industrial and professional endeavor, many of them remembered Hilda. She has received letters and gifts as her "caddies" traveled to many parts of the world.
Winters Hilda Paschke spends in her comfortable home next to the store. This building was purchased by her husband who moved it piece by piece from the Spencer estate on the hill near the Moravian church, reassembling it on its present location.
Hilda keeps the Brookside name alive in winter. She has standing orders for fresh bread each Saturday.
Still an energetic businesswoman, whose age is really nobody's concern, Hilda Paschke speaks with conviction when she says, "I enjoy Brookside. People can always work hard at something they like very much."
She is highly successful. The sense of well being one feels on leaving Brookside comes not only from good food. It also stems from an encounter with the gracious, assured Hilda Paschke.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles by Jane Shea
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/jane-shea