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US (WI): Franciscan nuns grow veggies in sustainable greenhouse

In one respect, the completion of a “net zero” greenhouse using only rainwater and solar energy harks back to the days when members of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration tilled land on St. Joseph Ridge the order bought in 1895.

“I always think about the sisters out in their black, wool habits,” imagining how hot the garments must have been as they toiled in the sun, FSPA Lucy Slinger said Monday as she explained how the net zero water and energy greenhouse operates on St. Joseph Ridge, 11 miles east of La Crosse on Hwy. 33.

A large garden on the site produces food on a smaller scale to this day — the harvest totaled 8,920 pounds of everything from broccoli to zucchini this past summer — and the new greenhouse will be a key to sustaining the garden.

The 24-foot-by-50-foot structure will be dedicated as Jacoba’s Greenhouse at 2 p.m. Saturday, with an open house after the dedication. The facility provides moisture for vegetables and flowers via its rainwater collection system, with a 1,600-gallon underground tank and fifteen 55-gallon drums inside, and heat with its westward-facing windows and solar panels.

The greenhouse is “the ultimate in sustainability, which always has been important for the Franciscans,” Slinger said, pointing to a thermostat that registered 78 degrees around noon on a day when the outside temperature was 55.

The three large support timbers and the large beams they hold up are the trunks of black locust trees harvested from land near Stoddard. They retain the shape of the trees, with the load distributed among several large branches still on the trunks.

“The wood is all local or from sustainable forests,” she said, also noting that everything left over during the building of the greenhouse was repurposed in one way or another.

The walls of one section of the greenhouse are made of bricks fashioned from the clay dug for the foundation and root cellar. Slinger has become a master at conserving space, fashioning seed-starting beds from rain gutters she can raise and lower with a network of ropes.

The ceiling in that room is made from locust planks Amish woodworkers shaved, she said, adding, “Look — it’s as good as a ceiling in a living room.

Read more at the La Crosse Tribune
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