Subiaco monks rejoice in grape harvest after pest battle

Many Christians wake up each morning and prepare to navigate a perilous world, and monks are no exception. 

But the battle that monks at Subiaco Abbey have been fighting for the past few years has been spiritual and agricultural. Now, the Benedictines have successfully managed to fend off a host of wild critters that have been wreaking havoc in the gardens of the tranquil abbey for several years. 

Father Jerome Kodell, Father Richard Walz and Brother Adrian Strobel are three of the monks protecting a host of fruits and vegetables at every turn, including squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, tomato, asparagus, okra, eggplant, sweet corn, red and green peppers, grapes and pecans, mostly “for table” — to feed 33 Benedictine monks each day.

The monks invited the public to join them Aug. 4 for a special event — to pick grapes at the abbey vineyard, an event that hadn’t occurred in five years.

“Different reasons — some of it had to do with the vines not being cared for for a while, then we had some varmints. Now this year looks like we’re going to make a harvest,” Father Kodell, OSB, said.

While the abbey used to make communion and table wine with the vineyard’s grapes, the monks no longer do — so all who participated in picking grapes were able to keep what they picked.

“Last year we lost the harvest to critters, but this year, so far, there aren’t as many around, and we’ve been keeping them at bay,” Father Kodell said. “This is the high time, because right now, the grapes are really ripe and they’re red and anything that smells for grapes can smell them.”

Followers of Subiaco Abbey’s Facebook page have been able to keep up with the colorful chronicles of the harrowing battle to protect crops, often featuring trail camera photos of fuzzy culprits. 

One post from July 6 outlined Father Kodell’s persistence. 

“For the past two years, Fr. Jerome has carefully tended the grape vines in our vineyard. For the past two years, his ENTIRE CROP of grapes has been eaten just before he can pick the grapes,” the post’s caption read. “GONE. LOST. EATEN. OVERNIGHT. This year, he took the offensive to try to trap the creatures that had laid waste to his vineyard BEFORE they could eat the grapes when they ripen in a few weeks. … 

“We then set multiple trail cams and VIOLA!!!! We find that it is not one or two raccoons, but SIX of them. These raccoons ate and left no crumbs!!! Tonight our gardens will be set with multiple traps as Fr. Jerome valiantly tries to catch and relocate the critters before they feast on his grapes. …”

With many of the culprits successfully relocated to a habitat with no crops, the monks now use their well-earned grapes to make another treat — jelly. Father Kodell estimates that Subiaco probably has around 100 grape vines — a sizeable amount, but less than the 250 vines they once had at the pinnacle of grape production. 

Another crop at Subiaco is sweet corn, which was also harvested in late July and early August. Father Kodell, 85, recently began planting the corn near the barn on Subiaco’s farm grounds. The location change confused corn-loving critters, and the neighboring barn allowed birds to eat any pests, so the corn crop was exceptionally good this year. 

“We are grateful this week for Fr. Jerome’s corn,” Subiaco Abbey posted on their Facebook July 17. “Fearful that the raccoons would get them before us, he quickly enlisted Br. Adrian and Trey Wright to assist in bringing the sweet corn from the farm to our table. …”

But the star of the show, Father Kodell said, is the hot peppers.

“The main crop here is the hot peppers for the pepper sauce, and that’s the main harvest that’s going on here,” he said. “We make the habanero pepper sauce (called Monk Sauce) in three types — red, green and then red smoked, which is the most popular. The peppers are just beginning to produce now, and we have about 170 plants. Last year, according to Father Richard, who is the pepper man, we had about 1,200 pounds of peppers to make the sauce with.”

Monk Sauce can be found at Subiaco Abbey’s gift shop and online store at countrymonks.biz. 

Father Walz, OSB, realized he had a green thumb while growing up on a farm in Poplar Bluff, Mo. 

“We grew just about everything you could dream of at that time,” he said.

Father Walz, who was ordained in 1967, found himself doing mission work for the monastery in Belize, including gardening. One of the locals, a mother of a young man discerning religious life, gave Father Walz a hot sauce recipe that she and her family swore by. The same recipe is still used in Monk Sauce today. 

In 2003, when the mission in Belize came to an end, Father Walz approached then-abbot Father Kodell about making the sauce and received the blessing to continue. 

“I have managed to keep it going ever since then,” he said. “I grow the peppers, and I save the seeds from the ones that I grow, and I plant them again the next year, and I’ve been doing that since I got back here.”

Father Walz grew up watching his mother can vegetables, so now he experiments with pickling vegetables as well. 

“I probably produced, I think it was 100 quarts of pickles and okra that we use for ourselves in the monastery, and then I pickle regular and spicy to sell in jars,” he said. “I’ve dabbled a little bit in tomatoes, but Father Jerome is the tomato grower, so I let him handle that.”

But this year’s crop was, as Father Kodell called it, “a tomato disaster.”

“I planted them in what I thought was a better place. It turned out to be, because of all the rain, not a good place.”

An exceptionally wet spring and early summer led to flooding and standing water — something tomatoes aren’t fond of. Father Kodell was able to salvage a few tomatoes; he’ll try again next year. 

But growing the various crops is about more than food. For Father Kodell — and many monks at Subiaco — gardening and farming teach important lessons in faith, too. 

“Jesus’ parables are 90 percent growth parables,” Father Kodell, a Scripture scholar, said. “He worked as a carpenter, but he doesn’t use carpenter parables. … Most of the parables are about growing plants. It’s very important, I think, because with the growth of a plant, you can’t control it. If you’re a carpenter, and you start building a table, when you go to bed that night, you know how much of the table is built. You get up the next morning, the table is the same, and you continue. 

“If you have a plant in the ground, at night when you go to bed, you know what it looked like after you watered it and fertilized it. You might get up in the morning, you might have three plants in a row, two plants are flourishing, and the third is not — and you don’t know why. The Kingdom of God, Jesus says, is like that — it’s not controllable. You have to adjust to what God says.”