Winter Gardening...

Greetings,

Since the groundhog has predicted an early spring, it is time to begin considering the monastery garden on this wintery February day.  We asked Sister Gardener to share some reflections about our summer bounty while the earth is still blanketed with winter's ice and snow and she has some time to spare.

Monastery gardens have been part of Benedictine tradition since the time of Benedict when he called for his communities to be self-sustaining.

Therefore the sisters should be occupied at certain times in manual labor...From Easter until the end of October, when they come out from Prime in the morning let them labor at whatever is necessary until about the fourth hour...they themselves do the work of gathering the harvest, let them not be discontented; for then are they truly monastics when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, however, for the sake of the faint-hearted. RB 48

Our monastery's current garden is short of an acre but includes a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, tubers, and gourds. Sister Gardener has nurtured the gardens, orchard, and grounds for 27 years. During that time, she has come to understand that "...true gardeners never cease to garden, not even in their sleep, because gardening is not just something they do. It is how they live" (Guroian). she leads a merry group of summer sister gardeners (school teachers home for the summer) through seasons of planting, watering, weeding, and praying that God makes the garden grow.  The work calls us to humility, for all we do cannot change mother nature's gifts or God's blessings.

The summer of 2012 was very dry, windy, and downright temper-mental. Sister Gardener reported that the total produce from the gardens to the sisters' table was 4,362 pounds, down over 5,300 pounds from the previous year. However, in the midst of the dust and bugs the fruits from garden brought many sweet treats to the monastery.

The garden sisters picked 107 pounds of cherries, 293 pounds of apricots, and 134 boxes of apples! These were then lovingly pitted, trimmed, and pared by other sisters for pies, sauces, and breakfast breads! The most anticipated produce in the monastery is the long awaited tomato. This year the gardeners brought in almost 1,700 pounds of herloom, purple, green zebra, and traditional bright red tomatoes for salads, sauces, and BLT's. Sister Gardener's personal favorite among her carefully tended greens are the cucumbers she often nibbles right from the vines and brines into lightly pickled bread and butter pickles; however, turnips are not likely to grace our garden again.

Called by God to care for the Earth and tend it, Sister Gardener offers this poem and prayer from Dame Julian of Norwish as we wait for this next season of growing...

Be a gardener.

Dig and ditch,

toil and sweat,

and turn the earth upside down

and water the plants in time.

Continue this labor

and make sweet floods to run

and noble and abundant fruits to spring.

Take this food and drink

and carry it to God

as your true worship.

Blessings,