The production of herbs was an important Shaker community industry. In the New Hampshire Bishopric, the Shakers listed around 150 different types of herbs for sale to the World’s People. For the Enfield Shakers, the herb industry was focused on the production of patent medicines such as Shaker Anodyne and Brown’s Extract of English Valerian. These types of herbal medications were developed out of physic gardens which were managed by doctors in the community. At Enfield, production of “Shaker Medicines” began in the mid-1830s and continued into the early twentieth century, even after the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

Today, the Enfield Shaker Museum Garden contains an array of herbs, heirloom fruits, and Shaker-developed plants. These are all examples of species that would have been grown and harvested not only by the Shakers, but also other nineteenth-century Americans. Today, these gardens are maintained collaboratively by the Museum’s Garden Coordinator and the dedicated participants of our Village Gardeners program.