Join Vivien Straus -- Cheese Trail founder and lover of cheese explorations -- in her visits to meet artisan cheesemakers across California.
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I took another cheese road trip in January. This time, I went to visit the Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph, the cloistered nuns located in the Tehachapi Mountains, two hours drive northeast of Los Angeles. Traveling up into the hills leaving civilization behind, I passed patches of snow, oak trees and quietness.
I never know who I meet or what I’ll find on my visits, but I was truly overwhelmed by this community that is filled with a sense of a sweet, peaceful, goodness.
When I first arrived, while waiting for the shop to open, I saw one of the residents in rubber farm boots doing chores.
I had emailed ahead to say I’d be stopping by and once the shop was opened, I was greeted with, “Hello Vivien” by Sisters Mary Francis and Dina Marie, both in their twenties. I felt so welcomed. We whispered, as their on-site shop is just next to the chapel, and we certainly didn’t want to impinge.
The sisters answered all my ridiculous questions, even about understanding their prayers, which are sometimes in Latin. Turns out they study Latin and they know exactly what they’re saying. I told them a ridiculous story about my finally hearing the translation of a goofy Hebrew prayer from my Jewish upbringing. They assured, and showed me, the depth of one of their readings.
I asked them why they decided to become nuns, which I hope wasn’t rude. They answered openly, one telling me how she found quiet and a sense of purpose.
The Roman Catholic convent, based on the rule of St. Augustine, has 40 residents and this convent has been around since 1997. Their daily scheduled prayers revolve around the Liturgy of the Hours, a series of psalms, readings and prayers, each poetic, beautiful and deep.
Along with their prayers, they care for their small herd of cows (Guernseys and Jersey) and sheep. Their Jersey (I believe they only have one), they told me shyly, is a bit “bossy.” They also raise and sell Anatolian Shepherd and Labrador dogs, make a wide array of jams, biscotti (yum!) and granola. And, of course, they make cheese – both for their own consumption and to sell to the public.
One of their cheeses is a raw cow’s milk cheese, aged and firm, and based on a recipe taught to them by one of the original five nuns at their priory– and that recipe, I believe, is based on one made generations earlier by the French monks of their order.
If you’d like to visit, you may join in the scheduled prayers in the chapel or visit their shop to pick up their homemade foods, including the cheese, and select from many of their religious items. They also have an online shop and ship all across the U.S.
As I left, the nun in the rubber boots was now in the chapel, deep in prayer, surrounded by others. She’d taken her boots off, of course.
The Priory is the sort of place that if it weren’t so remote, I’d be back for one of their scheduled readings. And to pick up cheese. Even days later, I can still feel the warm impact of my very short visit.
