Rely on the income that results from the sale of their cheeses and other products. Fruitcakes from Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky may have been rather a joke locally ('how many seasons' worth can we keep in the basement without them going bad?') but monks rely on the work of their hands to maintain their way of life.
In France (and elsewhere, surely) this is the case, too. There is an enterprise called Divine Box that sells 'subscriptions' to monthly boxes of cheeses, beer, tisanes etc etc that are made at French monastic and religious houses-- it is a familiar business model (is that the word?) made special by the sources of its goods. Several religious houses have had a surplus of cheeses accumulating because of the disruptions caused by the plague; the good folks at Divine Box came up with a sales scheme and, voilà, hundreds of pounds of cheese have been marketed successfully, relieving some at least of the burden on the monasteries. Le Salon Beige has a post this afternoon about the Benedictine sisters at Pesquié and their tommes.
Unfortunately, that tomme isn't sold abroad. A quick look on the Internet returns this site for monastic goods of lots of different kinds although surprisingly enough no cheeses; the nuns of this abbey in Virginia make cheese although one has to use the US Postal Service in order to contact them. An investment of more time would certainly return other sources of religious-made cheese.
In France (and elsewhere, surely) this is the case, too. There is an enterprise called Divine Box that sells 'subscriptions' to monthly boxes of cheeses, beer, tisanes etc etc that are made at French monastic and religious houses-- it is a familiar business model (is that the word?) made special by the sources of its goods. Several religious houses have had a surplus of cheeses accumulating because of the disruptions caused by the plague; the good folks at Divine Box came up with a sales scheme and, voilà, hundreds of pounds of cheese have been marketed successfully, relieving some at least of the burden on the monasteries. Le Salon Beige has a post this afternoon about the Benedictine sisters at Pesquié and their tommes.
Unfortunately, that tomme isn't sold abroad. A quick look on the Internet returns this site for monastic goods of lots of different kinds although surprisingly enough no cheeses; the nuns of this abbey in Virginia make cheese although one has to use the US Postal Service in order to contact them. An investment of more time would certainly return other sources of religious-made cheese.
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