Hermitage raises chickens as 'creatures of God,' with no cages

Published: 2007-12-05

BERRYVILLE, Ark. (CNS) -- At Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville, the Brothers and Sisters of Charity have a rule and constitution they live by -- to be agrarian in nature and to pursue a contemplative life. But the members of the monastery also want it to be self-sustaining. Five years ago these two aims led the monastery into a growing field -- natural foods, specifically pasture-raised chicken. Currently the hermitage, founded in 1980 by John Michael Talbot, has about 30 members, including celibate brothers and sisters, single people and families with children. To protect a way of life centered on prayer, the members needed a commercial industry in addition to income from Talbot's music ministry, which has fallen off in recent years because of changes in the recording industry, said Richard Ims, a married member of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity who helps raise, market and deliver the chickens. The hermitage sits on 400 acres, but it's not great farmland because it's in a valley and full of "Ozark mountain clay and rock," he told the Arkansas Catholic, newspaper of the Little Rock Diocese.

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