Since the Middle Ages monks have incorporated gardens as part of monastic life. Twenty-first century monks continue the tradition of keeping the garden central to monastic life.
Monastic Life at Mepkin Abbey
Mepkin Abbey is a community of Roman Catholic Trappist monks living in Spanish moss draped Mepkin Plantation along the Cooper River thirty miles inland from Charleston, South Carolina. They live in solitude and silence according to the Rule of St. Benedict from the Middle Ages.
Prayer, meditation, manual labor and sharing their spiritual journey through gardens, library and guest retreats mark the four points of a monk’s day every day.
Horticultural and agricultural pursuits provide the manual labor required for the monks to be self-reliant and self-sustaining. Since most monastic life is conducted in silence, the four hours of garden work each day incorporates prayer and meditation. Besides the thriving oyster mushroom farm, the monks are restoring a native plant meadow and tend the Claire Booth Luce Gardens on site.
Oyster Mushroom Culture at Mepkin Abbey
There are numerous methods of growing mushrooms. Mushroom culture is meticulous and methodical but these are assets for the ascetic. Mepkin Abbey monks use the bag method of propagation.
- Monks spread a tarp onto a cement floor and sanitize the tarp. Atop the tarp they layer three types of growing media including straw and cottonseed meal.
- After the media is spread, monks scatter mushroom spawn by hand evenly over the media layers.
- Once the bed is made, the monks don gloves to hand pack the media and spawn mixture into thick black plastic tubular bags 4 feet in length and a foot in diameter. The tubular columns that look like punching bags are transported to and hung in a moisture and temperature controlled environment looking more like a boxing gym than a monastery greenhouse.
- Monks slash growing slits into the hanging tubes using boards embedded with nails. The holes provide a place for the clusters to sprout from. Bags are dated to estimate bloom time.
- In two weeks shelf-like yellow, pink, or white oyster mushrooms bloom from the slits. Each tubular bag yields 3 bloom times over a 3-month period.
- The monks harvest clusters of mushrooms by hand placing them in baskets before storing in a cooler prior to boxing and transport to market
The Oyster Mushroom Market
Oyster mushrooms are versatile and easily grown all over the world. Historically, they have medicinal, culinary, and environmental benefits.
Coastal Charleston, South Carolina, a major tourist destination for travellers from around the world is a major market for the Mepkin Abbey oyster mushroom. Chefs in Charleston’s restaurants and inns seek the mild flavored mushroom, especially for seafood dishes and vegetarian recipes.
Mepkin Abbey oyster mushrooms reach the consumer through local farmer markets and Piggly Wiggly grocery stores throughout South Carolina as well.
Oyster mushrooms are sold in 6-ounce boxes with recipes from the chief cook at Mepkin Abbey on the side panels.
The Mepkin Abbey Store at the monastery sells fresh oyster mushrooms, dried oyster mushrooms, and oyster mushroom powder to visitors Tuesday through Sunday.
Organic Gardening at Mepkin Abbey
The monks practice organic gardening. Waste from mushroom farming is recycled into reusable products. Spent mushroom growing media will be recycled into mushroom compost and sold to home gardeners. Mepkin Abbey Earth Healer, chicken manure compost from a former egg production venture at the abbey, is still available at some garden centers throughout South Carolina.
Mepkin Abbey oyster mushroom farming is a first ever venture for Trappist monks.
While one doesn’t have to be a monk to be successful at growing oyster mushrooms, observing patience, silence, prayer and meditation are admirable accouterments to all gardening ventures.
Arlene Marturano - Arlene Marturano, an educator, consultant, master gardener, and writer advocates gardens as a context and gardening as a tool for ...
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