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Monks
and Nuns Provide Edible Gifts by MailTop ingredients and a touch of prayer make this
mail-order food worth giving
By Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune
Contact: Will Keller, Monastery Greetings, 800-472-0425
MEDIA ADVISORY, Nov. 5 /Christian
Newswire/ -- Your gift is in the giving, the old holiday nostrum goes. But
you also can get a feel-good gift in the buying, especially if you tap the
monasteries, convents and hermitages scattered around the world. Many specialize
in making food products, the range of which goes way beyond the usual fruitcake
to include spice blends, jams, cheese, truffles and even coffee.
And no matter whether they're Roman Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, they do it
while pursuing what they say is their main mission: prayer.
"Prayer and labor have been in the monastic tradition from the very beginning,"
said Sister Gail Fitzpatrick, a member of the Cistercian Order of the Strict
Observance, known popularly as Trappistines. She is based at Our Lady of the
Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa.
The nuns there make candy, including their signature Trappistine Creamy
Caramels. Fitzpatrick is up every day at 3:45 a.m. By 5, she's at the candy
facility tempering chocolate. Then she goes back to the abbey to pray, read and
celebrate Mass before returning to tend the chocolate.
"You do have to weave tasks," the nun said with a chuckle. "Chocolate has
demands."
Fitzpatrick is proud of the candy. She points to the quality ingredients used
but notes the fact that nuns make them is also a selling point with the public.
"I think they can trust us, that what we put into that candy is good,"
Fitzpatrick said. "The environment in which we make candy is one of love and
care. And if they believe in prayer that will mean something because we pray as
we work."
Will Keller has been selling products made by nuns and monks for 10 years
through his Cleveland mail-order company, Monastery Greetings. Among the
religious communities Keller's company represents are the monks of the Most
Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Clark, Wyo. The brothers began roasting,
blending and selling coffee beans in 2007 to finance construction of a permanent
monastery.
"One of the brothers was something of a coffee expert. He was a barista," said
Brother Paul Marie of the Cross, who oversees the coffee business. "His family
owned a coffee plantation in Costa Rica."
Now the monks roast and blend 30 different coffees, including decaf. Brother
Paul Marie said some customers buy the coffee to support the monastery but
others buy it because it tastes good.
"We use good arabica beans. The gourmet coffee drinker appreciates it," he said.
For John Tapert of Duvall, Wash., it was disappointment in a gourmet cedar plank
used to grill fish that led him to make fish planks out of alder wood and
package them for sale with bottles of his own St. Benedict barbecue sauce and
spice rub.
A one-time jewelry maker, Tapert now specializes in religious art. He and his
artist wife, Candace, belong to the secular branch of the St. Joseph Carmelite
monastery in Shoreline, Wash. They live in their own hermitage in Duvall
following many of the same rules and traditions as the cloistered nuns, who are
part of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. In addition to the alder grilling
sets, he makes a range of jams named after various saints.
The 5-acre hermitage provides both the alder wood and the fruits and berries for
the jams.
"It's a simple, honest, straightforward way to make a living," he said. "It
involves a lot of quiet labor. We're not out in the world doing it for the most
part. The end product is something you can be honest about. It has integrity, if
you will."
Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune
wdaley@tribune.com
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
Order from the Source
These products are made by or for monasteries, convents, abbeys and hermitages
in the United States. All are available by ordering directly from the source. Or
you can buy them through Monastery Greetings, a Cleveland mail-order firm
(800-472-0425,
monasterygreetings.com). Prices for products listed below are from the
makers and do not include shipping or other charges:
St. Benedict sauce and plank from the Northwest Alder Plank Grilling Kit.
Fashioned by John Tapert for the St. Joseph Carmelite Monastery in Shoreline,
Wash. $39.95. 425-788-4905,
johntapert.com/Tapert_Studios
Cowboy Blend Coffee by Mystic Monk Coffee. Made by the monks of the Most Blessed
Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, Clark, Wyo. $9.95 (12-ounce bag). 877-751-6377,
mysticmonkcoffee.com.
Trappist Abbey Monastery Fruitcake by the monks of the Abbey of Our Lady of
Guadalupe in Lafayette, Ore. $27.50 (three 1-pound fruitcakes). 800-294-0105,
trappistabbey.org
Milk Chocolate Butter Nut Munch by Trappistine Quality Candy. Made by nuns at
Mount St. Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Mass. $12 (10-ounce box). 866-549-8929,
trappistinecandy.com
Deluxe Caramel Assortment from Trappistine Creamy Caramels. Made by nuns at Our
Lady of the Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa. $17 (24-ounce box).
866-556-3400, www.trappistine.com.
Springerle Cookies by Simply Divine, a bakery run by the Sisters of St.
Benedict, Ferdinand, Ind. $10.50 (12 cookies). 812-367-2500,
www.simplydivinebakery.org.
-- B.D.
www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-tc-food-mail-order-1030-1104nov04,0,6839897.story