There’s not much money in a life of quiet contemplation, which is tough, because quiet contemplation while ConEd comes to turn off your electricity is challenging. Which is why some nuns in upstate New York sell cheesecake. Fancy cheesecake, billed as “heavenly,” in flavors like key lime and chocolate. Tasty, tasty cheesecake.
The AP visited the sisters of New Skete. There are five of them (the youngest being 64) and it turns out baking fits pretty nicely into their days. They’ve been doing it for years, too:
The roots of the cheesecake business here go back to 1969, when five Roman Catholic nuns from Indiana searched for a less cloistered life in a new monastery. They ended up in Cambridge near like-minded monks and began looking for ways to earn money.
They cleaned houses, worked at the local hospital and did upholstery work. One of the nuns, Sister Magdalene, had a talent for baking and in the mid ‘70s and tried selling cheesecakes to local restaurants.
The cheesecakes were such a hit they added a bakery in 1983.
They bake a couple of times a week; according to their website, the gap between morning and evening prayers gives just enough time for the cheesecakes to cool. Just a gang of nuns, hanging around, making cheesecakes. As you do. If you are a nun.
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Photo via AP Images.