Interchange Ecologyspring 2014 Sisters of Saint Francis
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
interchange ecologySPRING 2014 Sisters of Saint Francis Exploring values common to you and today's Rochester Franciscans interchange a publication of the Focus: ecology Sisters of Saint Francis Volume 20 Issue 1 Bee-ing Grateful at Assisi Heights 2 by Sister Rafael Tilton editor Kathy Gatliff Ecological Footprints layout/design 4 by Sister Ramona Miller Audrey Caseltine cover photo A Green Pilgrimage 6 by Sister Marlys Jax Amy Ransom Used with permission. Assisi Heights Spirituality Center Events telephone: (507) 282-7441 7 fax: (507) 282-7762 [email protected] Life on the Farm: Willkapampa www.rochesterfranciscan.org 8 by Sister M. Carolina Pardo 1001 14th Street Northwest Rochester, MN 55901 Franciscan Values Flourish in the Desert 10 by Pam Captain, Cojourner Coordinator An Invitation 11 by Sister Joy Barth Preserving Nature in Living the Life of Francis 12 by John Murphy, Communications Advisory Council Board interchange is published 4 times a year. Issues are sent via email in Winter and Summer to accompany our magazines 13 In Celebration! published in Fall and Spring. To receive our email editions, please complete the form on the In Memoriam back of this magazine, 14 or send an email request to: [email protected] An Update on the Solar Power System 16 by Don DeCramer, Consultant There is no subscription fee. However, donations to help cover the cost of printing and postage The Heart of Franciscan Spirituality are accepted and appreciated. 17 by Barb DeCramer, Office of Development Recipient of the 2010 & 2011 Lumen Award From the National Catholic Development Conference Letter from the Editor by Kathy Gatliff, Director of Communications When Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis of Assisi as the patron of ecology in 1979 (Apostolic Letter Inter Sanctos: AAS 71), he stated, “St. Francis invited all creation – animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honor and praise to the Lord.” It does seem that Saint Francis was ahead of his time. He was very much like today’s environmentalists, understanding the delicate balance of the ecosystem and how all living things are intertwined. Quite often the Sisters of Saint Francis have also been looked upon as being ahead of their time – especially when it comes to ecological concerns. In this issue, you’ll see that Sister Antoine, who just turned 100 years old, was ahead of the curve with reusing and recycling – a practice she encouraged at Saint Marys Hospital. Even today, the Sisters are on the cutting edge with the installation of the largest Solar Panel field in southeastern Minnesota. You’ll also find St. Francis’ love for all of creation in the activities around Assisi Heights, whether it is beekeeping, gardening or simply listening to the songs of birds. That love was also instilled in the Franciscan Community in Bogotá, Colombia, as they continue to create an ecological haven on their beloved piece of earth, known as Willkapampa. As Spring brings new life and renewal to nature and our surroundings, we hope the stories in this issue will bring a new awareness and appreciation of the Sisters of Saint Francis, and that they will continue to hold a special place in your heart. Photo by Amy Ransom interchange 1 Sister Alice Thraen and the 2013 honey harvest - 950.7 pounds from 5 hives! Bee-ing Grateful at Assisi Heights by Sister Rafael Tilton Once a month, on a Thursday Tom Bramble, a beekeeper from honey) and fitted the prefabricated night, the 70 or so members of the rural Olmsted County, suggested frames together. They inserted Southeast Minnesota Beekeepers Assisi Heights have its own hives. preformed wax foundations into the Association (SEMNBA) meet at “He helped us set up. We had no frames to save time for the bees so Assisi Heights to update their equipment at the time,” explained they could collect honey instead of interest in what is, at the least, an Sister Marlys Jax, who was Director building honeycombs. absorbing hobby, and at most, an of Plant Operations during the days industry, and for all an interface of the Assisi Community Center “Then the president of our bee club with millions of God’s most (ACC). “So we needed to start from got a sting and his reaction sent engaging creatures. the beginning.” him to the hospital,” recalled Tom. “He had to give up beekeeping. So So, how do beekeepers keep us “The Assisi Community Center he donated all of his equipment to supplied with that thick golden sponsored a class. That started my Assisi Heights.” syrup so unfailingly sweet when interest.” said Sister Alice. “I was poured on our breakfast pancakes? most interested in how that honey As Assisi Heights continued to Over the years, Sister Alice Thraen came to be.” She spent time learning establish hives for the summer, and Sister Marlys Jax have collected the fascinating routines of how Sister Alice became more interested the lore, the explanations and the the workers fly out to visit pollen- in the life of bees. “They can pictures to fill us in. bearing flowers, sip the nectar from travel three to five miles, and they the center glands of the flowers, and remember where the best flowers “Beekeepers were at Assisi Heights return to the hives with food for the are and use a kind of radar to make before I was,” said Sister Alice rest of the bee colony. their way back and forth,” she Thraen, who hosts the Association mentioned. on meeting nights. “They rented Sisters Mary Frederick, Joy Barth space for their hives so that while and Alice were on the ACC staff. Inside the hive, worker bees fan the the bees pollinated our apple trees, They built and painted supers nectar, evaporating moisture until they also collected honey.” (part of the beehive that collects the it is more like syrup than water. 2 spring 2014 | ecology Left to Right: It’s not glamorous, but it’s a cozy way to travel; the bees arrive in their box. The extractor cylinder uses centrifugal force to spin the honey out of the frames. The extractor deposits the honey out the bottom into awaiting buckets. Certain bees feed the males (the Minnesota. It’s like wanting only ice the hives,” remarked Sister Joy. drones of the hive) and the single cream. The varied diet is healthier, “We removed the wax capping the female (the queen) of each hive, makes the bees stronger and more bees use to close each little cell in who must be healthy to continue versatile, but they don’t know how the honeycomb and stacked the throughout the season to produce to benefit. Or they pick up different extractor cylinder with its twenty thousands of eggs per day and keep kinds of mites with no enemies up frames.” the hive buzzing. here. So overwintering is harder now.” Centrifugal force spins the honey “Tom showed me how to remove out of the combs onto the sides of a super of filled frames and leave Having hives means having another the extractor cylinder. It runs down an empty one,” says Sister Alice. job, taking the honey from the the sides of the cylinder and into a “A hive of industrious bees will combs where the bees store it. “We pail. “I would watch the pail, turn produce anywhere from ninety decided to do the extracting at the spigot to shut off the flow, and to a hundred and thirty pounds Tom’s because he had a place set empty the pail before spinning the of honey in a season.” Looking up and because of the danger of the extractor again,” recalls Sister Mary. over her records of her past twenty other Sisters getting stung by stray “The honey was stored in buckets to years, she adds, “The most we ever bees,” stated Sister Marlys. freeze it until later.” averaged here was 195 pounds [per hive] in the summer of 2008.” “Getting stung is not because the ”The freezing slows down or even bees are aggressive. It’s just that all prevents crystallization,” explained “If we take all the bees’ food, it those bees want to get home. But it’s Sister Alice. Sister Mary added, is our job to feed them over the easy not to see a bee under a frame “Later, when we had time to can, winter,” said Tom. “In the early or have it get caught in a tight place we’d thaw the honey in the proofer days we over-wintered all our bees. on your clothing. That’s when you (the oven used for bread rising). We were always splitting the hives get stung,” explained Tom. We’d wash and label enough jars for because they were so vigorous and a hundred pounds or so of honey.” healthy.” Sister Mary recalls getting two stings in the same day. Sister “We also have creamed honey,” said “Nowadays we usually purchase Alice had a copper penny. “I put Sister Alice, “which is artificially new bee packages to start fresh that penny on the sting and it felt crystallized with the help of a hives in the spring,” explained better.” commercial product. Then it Sister Alice. “This is partly because is stirred rapidly to the proper of widespread Colony Collapse “It’s worked out pretty well to do consistency. When we spread it on Disorder (CCD). There is a lot of the extracting at my place,” said our toast, we need to remember that research about why the bees are Tom. “We’ve got more in friendship for every third bite of food we take, weaker or die.” than we have in honey… especially we owe credit to the honeybee.” after I showed the Sisters what it Tom has a theory: “Taking the bees was to clean up afterwards.