Crystal Spring is a project of the Dominican Sisters of Kentucky. In 1949 the Toner family gifted the Sisters with 63 acres of a once active farm and surrounding woodland. Over the years, the buildings and land have gone through many changes, but each expression has been a center for learning compatible with the times.

In 1991, in response to an ever-increasing awareness of our planetary crisis and inspired by the cosmological vision articulated by writers such as Thomas Berry, the resident Sisters began to put their eco-spirituality into practice. On the remaining 40 acres of land, they instituted a Community Supported Agriculture program, organic garden and Earth education center.

In 2008, the Sisters permanently protected this land. Today, they continue to assist other congregations with similar goals.

 

In the first half of the last century, when the water from the pump was yet crystal clear, a thriving farm with apple orchards and lush gardens defined Crystal Spring. Today the surface water from the springs flows over a rock bed and through aquatic plants to a filtering pond and into the drip irrigation lines to water the vegetable gardens.