Trappist Preserves
In 1954, shortly after their arrival in Spencer, a small, stove-top batch of mint jelly was made by one of the monks with mint from their herb garden. Since monastic austerity at that time precluded the jelly from being served to the monks at meals, it was sold at the porters' lodge. The response to the jelly encouraged the monks to try making and selling other varieties. Soon, jelly-making proved to be a successful and compatible monastic industry, contributing about half of the income needed to run the abbey. The jams and jellies made by the monks are sold under the brand name Trappist Preserves, and are now available in supermarkets in the United States, particularly in the New England region. In 2005, the monks produced 1.7 million jars of preserves in 26 flavors, turning one and a half tons of fruit into preserves daily. Brother William James perfected the recipes and, as of 2005, had cooked every batch of jam made at the abbey in the past 40 years.
The monks at the abbey also make liturgical vestments, and run a farm.
Read more about this topic: St. Joseph's Abbey (Spencer, Massachusetts)
Famous quotes containing the word preserves:
“Probably I should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)