Some monasteries make jelly, creamed honey, even world-class beer. For the last 25 years, the Trappist monks of Assumption Abbey in the foothills of the Ozarks have made fruitcake. They're less ...

The peal of the church bell splits the predawn darkness like a summons from God himself. The hermits of Big Sur rise from their beds, slip on white robes and emerge one by one from their quarters — ...

AVA, Mo. — Off the hilly blacktop and down a red dirt drive, fog sits in the Ozark pine forest. It's early. Like 3:15 in the morning early. Someone pulls a rope and a bell tolls. Inside an old ...

When the monks bake at the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, the bees hover outside the kitchen windows, drawn by the heady scent of warm maple syrup. This time of year, orders for holiday ...

AVA, Mo. -- When the monks of Assumption Abbey could no longer support themselves by producing cement blocks, they decided to make fruitcake. Fifteen years and thousands of cakes later, there is no ...

Fruitcake orders are entered into the computer at Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Va. on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. The monks here have been baking and selling fruitcake since the 1980s. The bake from ...

(UNDATED) They’re delaying their purchase of a new car. They’re thinking twice before dining out. But you know the economy is tough when consumers are even reducing their purchases of that Christmas ...

AVA, Mo. - Like their brethren elsewhere, the Trappist monks of Assumption Abbey are a quiet bunch. They live and work in mostly silent contemplation, seldom speaking. They pray seven times a day, ...

AVA, Mo. — On this autumn morning, when the chapel bell tolls, a moonlit mist shrouds the monks’ cloister in the thick woods of the Ozarks. Just before the “Great Silence” ends, at 3:15 a.m., Brother ...

Will it be fudge or fruitcake? You get to make the call when you visit two homes for spiritual men in Yamhill County. Both make food products they sell, to help pay bills, and both have public guest ...

BIG SUR — The peal of the church bell splits the predawn darkness like a summons from God himself. The hermits of Big Sur rise from their beds, slip on white robes and emerge one by one from their ...