Our Mountain Priory Cheese
Mountain Priory Cheese is an artisanal cheese hand-made by the nuns at our monastery from local, raw cow milk, using a recipe uniquely developed at our Norbertine Priory in the Tehachapi Mountains. Aged at least 2 months, it matures into a mild and firm cheese.
Original
Italian Herb
Smoked Chipotle
“...some Sisters ought to head the cheesemaking...”
from the First Statutes of the Norbertine Order (12th Century)
The Norbertine Tradition of Cheesemaking
The special mission of Norbertine Canonesses is the solemn and reverential celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, the prayer of the Church, in which all the needs of the world are brought before the Triune God, Who is praised, adored, and glorified. From the Order’s beginning 900 years ago, this prayer has overflowed from the choir into the external works of the arts and study, agricultural and domestic duties, and hospitality to the poor, to guests and pilgrims.
Among the ancient traditions handed down to us from the 12th century is cheesemaking. At Prémontré, France, the first monastery of the Order, among the duties of the Sisters was to make cheese as a service for the monastic community and for the sick, poor, and pilgrims who came to the monastery door. These first daughters of St. Norbert must have developed their own in-house cheesemaking recipes, specific to their locality in northern France and responding to needs of the those they served. Now, over 900 years later, the tradition of Norbertine cheesemaking continues in the “New World” at the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph.
The simple process of making cheese is a very apt image of the “one heart and one soul seeking God” (Acts 4:32), or communio, that our Rule calls us to: many curds cooked and stirred and pressed together, form a single cohesive whole, which is aged and brought to perfection as one. All our work, be it study or hospitality, tending the animals or making cheese, are so many ways in which a Norbertine community, in and through Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, seeks to radiate the Liturgy's prayer of praise and petition to the whole world, and thus bring all of creation back to God.