Each Tuesday and Friday night, the aroma of baking bread fills the corridors of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ convent in northern Indiana.
Sister Agnes Muhlenfeld and Sister Magdala Oswald hand-shape round loaves of multigrain bread, Earthworks' most popular kind. (Photo: Marianne Peters)
It starts with Sandy Gerstbauer, a volunteer and retired nurse, who gets there first to mix the dough. Next to arrive is Sister Sue Rodgers, who folds and pounds each lump of dough into a loaf shape. In all, about 650 loaves will come out of the kitchen each week to sell at the local farmer’s market or to area restaurants.
"The sisters come down when they smell it baking," Gerstbauer said. "They get a loaf of bread right out of the oven."
The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ started Earthworks in 1988 to model a community that sustains itself on working close to home. The Marshall County convent’s spires rise unexpectedly in the level, rural landscape near Donaldson, Ind. Besides the commercial kitchen, the grounds also hold herb and vegetable gardens, a greenhouse, lake, woods and wetlands.
Over the years, Earthworks has grown into an environmental learning community, teaching and enabling wise use of the earth’s resources, said Sister Sue, director of Earthworks since 2001.
Community is the key word, she said, because by connecting people to each other and to the earth, even little changes make a difference.
Besides its bread sales, Earthworks offers a natural foods co-op, an annual spring plant sale, and the Christmas Whole House Sale, in which almost every room of the rambling two-story headquarters is filled with craft items and gently-used goods. All these activities support Earthworks’ educational programs.
During weeklong summer day camps, children befriend Earthworks’ resident livestock: two goats, two sheep and a flock of chickens. They also see the produce growing in the gardens and begin to realize that food comes from the land before it ever hits the grocery store.
With modern-day shopping, people have lost the connection to their food sources, said Sister Sue, recalling one conversation with a youngster who cradled a brown chicken egg in her hand and asked, "How long will it take before it turns white?"
The natural setting is a tremendous asset, said Amanda Petrucelli, mother of Calvin Petrucelli, a first-grader in Plymouth, Ind., who attended Earthworks summer camp in 2006.
"Calvin gets to swim in a real lake. It’s hard to have a relationship with the earth in the city pool," she said.
Like campers everywhere, her son made crafts -- like candles, cheeses and even a lip gloss -- but with a twist: all natural materials. "He didn’t make crafts with prefabricated foam shapes," she says. "We’ve gotten so far away from knowing the origin of things."
Earthworks offers cooking programs for adults, which encourage hands-on, healthy food preparation, and not just for the consumer. The convent supports sustainability by buying items as close to home as possible. Because no local source could be found, Earthworks buys its bread grains from sustainable farms in Montana and Pennsylvania.
Each summer, Earthworks anchors the Plymouth Farmers Market, too. In partnership with Ancilla Beef and Grain Farm, another ministry sponsored by the convent, the nuns sell handmade breads, grass-fed beef, organic produce, gourmet cheeses, jams, spreads and crafts. Earthworks staff also serves on the farmers’ market’s advisory board.
"People need to talk to the people who grow their food," Sister Sue said. "We’re all connected. Our mission here is really to get both children and adults to love the natural world. We protect what we love."
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