Monastic preparations for the winter

 

Work is in full swing in the monastery kitchen. The sisters are harvesting apples for the winter. At the same time, one of the sisters reads the canons, akathists, the Jesus Prayer aloud. In the monastery, whether they cook food, sew clothes, wash dishes, plant flowers or paint ceramics - every obedience is done with prayer. We asked a few questions to sister Xenia.

- Sister Ksenia, now everyone is busy with apples, tell me, where does this gift come from?

- The apples were donated to us. For the first time, this amount is as much as 7 tons. Galina and Victor, we pray for them.

- What do you make of them?

- We make jam,have already made a puree, made juice: raw and steamed through the juicer.

- Who are your main assistants?

- First of all, these are the sisters who are very actively involved in the bulkhead of apples and in the preparation of raw materials for cooking, they cut apples, peel seeds, prepare jars. There is a group of pilgrims, several people who are also very actively involved. Ready-made raw materials come to our kitchen, it remains only to put them on the stove, cover them with sugar and cook.

- While the preparations are being made, how is your daily routine going?

- During the day, preparations are underway, in which many assistants are involved, and already from 6 pm to 3-4 nights, the cooking process takes place, because the volume reaches from 150 to 240 liters, and in the morning the stoves should be free so that the cooks can prepare food for everyone: sisters, children, guests and pilgrims.

- Are there enough assistants?

- Everyone is working very hard, but of course there are not enough hands. Therefore, we are especially happy and grateful to everyone who participates and helps. We weren't able to recycle everything. We froze some of the apples. In the future, we will make filling for pies from frozen apples. In winter, we will also cook them, only in small portions. We plan to dry several boxes of apples, make dried fruits and cook compotes in winter. To do this, we pass the apples through a special machine, which cuts them, and then we dry them using drying machines.