Shaker Herbs
(Page 5 of 6)
February/March 1997
By RITA BUCHANAN
Day to day
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In the business’s golden days, the decades from 1820 to 1860,
the Shakers were growing and gathering hundreds of herbs and
selling them simply dried or as liquid extracts. It was seasonal
work, peaking between July and September, when most of the herbs
were gathered. It was varied work because there were so many kinds
of herbs and several ways of processing them. It was relatively
light work, perhaps tedious but requiring little strength or
exertion. It was sociable work, occupying groups of children,
sisters and brethren, and the elderly.
The outdoor work started in spring, when the gardeners spread
manure and compost and plowed the soil, divided perennials, sowed
annuals, and engaged neighboring farmers to grow crops that were in
high demand. Throughout the summer, the gardeners had to keep up
with hoeing and weeding the herb fields, but their main challenge
was processing all the fresh herbs—hauling them in, spreading them
out to dry, then gathering them for grinding or pressing or into
barrels for storage. In the fall, they cleaned up the garden, made
compost piles, and sowed those few kinds of seeds that had to
winter outdoors.
Most of the herbs—among them spearmint, peppermint, pennyroyal,
belladonna, dandelion, witch hazel, sage, chamomile, yellow dock,
and lovage—were harvested between June and September by picking or
cutting whole stems or stalks, or just plucking off the tops, and
piling them onto linen sheets 15 feet square. They were picked from
the garden and the wild. Back at the village, the sheets of herbs
were carried indoors and suspended in the attics or lofts to dry or
were spread to dry on the attic floors, dried in kilns heated by
coal or wood fires, or put into the still kettle for
distillation.
Barks were gathered from the Shaker woodlands, usually in late
May or June just as the trees were leafing out. Roots were usually
dug after a few frosts in fall. From late fall through the winter,
the work was done indoors; the summer’s crops of dried herbs were
pressed into compact blocks, wrapped, and labeled, and orders were
filled.
Today, the Shaker gardens, along with their way of life, have
largely disappeared. The Shaker movement lasted more than two
centuries and included nearly 17,000 people in several states.
There are only seven Shakers left—in one small community in
Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
Rita Buchanan, who lives in Winsted, Connecticut, has written
numerous articles for The Herb Companion and is the author of
several gardening and craft books, including A Dyer’s Garden
(Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1996).
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