Enfield Shaker Museum
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Facebook Festival of Trees #7 - "A Blue Orchid Moon Christmas" by Joan Holcombe To enter to win this tree, like, comment on and/or share THIS PHOTO as described at our FB event (including full raffle details): http://ow.ly/FWEK50CEYvM To donate: http://ow.ly/G0jz50CEYvN... #ESMFestivalofTrees #ShakerHolidays #EnfieldShakerMuseum

Facebook Festival of Trees #6 - "Crystal Clear Cause" for World Purple Day to Raise Awareness for Epilepsy by Klary Black To enter to win this tree, like, comment on and/or share THIS PHOTO as described at our FB event (including full raffle details): http://ow.ly/FWEK50CEYvM To donate: http://ow.ly/G0jz50CEYvN... #ESMFestivalofTrees #ShakerHolidays #EnfieldShakerMuseum

Haven't made it to see the lights display by our neighbors at La Salette Shrine of Enfield, NH ? A local photographer has you covered! Visit https://chrisjohnson.format.com/la-salette to enjoy the lights through his lens.

Facebook Festival of Trees #5 - "Dr. Seuss and Peppermints" by Cyndi Weiger To enter to win this tree, like, comment on and/or share THIS PHOTO as described at our FB event (including full raffle details): http://ow.ly/FWEK50CEYvM To donate: http://ow.ly/G0jz50CEYvN... #ESMFestivalofTrees #ShakerHolidays #EnfieldShakerMuseum

As we look forward to Week Three of All at Home: A Taste of History, we're focused on... BREAD! Martin Philip of King Arthur Flour and author of "Breaking Bread: A Baker's Journey Home in 75 recipes" will be speaking to us this Thursday at 7pm (Tickets still available: http://ow.ly/bSTj50BOEWm ) This week's tasting basket features homemade bread by our inimitable volunteers, Vermont Farmstead Cheese Co. Governor's Cheddar and Champlain Orchards Cider limited release, Kingsto...n Dry, as well as Castleton Crackers from Vermont Farmstead Cheese Co. . We wanted to share with you Hervey Elkin's description of the Great Stone Dwelling's Kitchen and Bake Room - currently used as our modern kitchen and an interpretation room. The kitchen is forty feet in length and twenty four in width. In this apartment, where so much labor is performed, the same neatness prevails as in other parts of the edifice. Carpets protect the floors, the walls are pure white and the inside of the cupboards and closets of a sky blue. Large ranges, twenty fee in length, protected by a frame of cast iron, forms the laboratory of the kitchen. Let us cross the corridor, ten feet in width, and enter the baking apartment. Solid masonry as high as the room, painted a sky blue, is the only object which distinguishes this room from the others. Within those beautiful polished walls are free stone ovens, seven feet in length. (Fifteen Years in the Senior Order of Shakers. Hervey Elkins. 1853. Page 39.)

As we post our #ESMFestivalofTrees photos on Facebook & host our online event, we are missing the festive buzz of visitors in the Great Stone Dwelling- Please enjoy this puzzle of last year's FOT Dining Room setup! https://jigex.com/b9Re #EnfieldShakerMuseum #ShakerHolidays

During harvesting trips, the Enfield Shaker Brethren typically brought food with them to avoid returning to the dwelling house in the middle of the work day. Food for these trips varied based on the season and the era. On a late maple sugaring trip, Br. John Cummings and his former Shaker brother Henry enjoyed a "camp" dinner. Henry described this meal in detail in an April 16, 1909 article for the Enfield Advocate. "The dinner consisted of boiled eggs, potatoes, roasted in h...ot ashes, baked beans, doughnuts, bread and butter with hot or cold syrup, mince and apple pie and for drink hot sap with nice creamy milk. After doing ample justice to this repast we proceeded to the crowning event, the making of stick chops. This is simply syrup boiled down until it will run on snow and take up hard enough to chew nicely when well done. It is delicious and rightly named." See more

foliage framed view of the Great Stone Dwelling and Mary Keane Chapel from the border we share with our neighbors at La Salette #EnfieldShakerMuseum #NHfoliage #nhmuseums

Please enjoy this puzzle of the back porch of the Great Stone Dwelling with apples in the forefront and the East Brethren's Shop shining through the back! A little more difficult (100 pieces) than our usual puzzles (60 pieces) - Let us know how you do! https://jigex.com/6EDs

Stop by the Museum today for our PIE SALE - we have a ton of homemade pies for sale - tent outside the great stone dwelling, now til they’re gone!

Hervey Elkins was raised at the Enfield Shaker Village, stayed into adulthood, and eventually chose to leave and to marry former Enfield sister Martha Hart. After departing, he published a book about his time with the Shakers which is one of our best descriptions of living in the Enfield Shaker Village at the time. He was an elegant and descriptive writer, and we thought this passage was perfect for today’s beautiful and sunny fall weather. In describing the work done by the ...boys in the Church family during autumn, he also describes what they did in their free time: Sometimes we would enter our boats, lying in a creek below our garden, and rowing half way to the opposite shore of the lake, would then drift in obedience to the impulse of the rippling waves; I, seated in the stern, basking in that soft repose which sound health, unannoyed conscience, easy circumstances, and a warm and luminous atmosphere, combine to afford; intoxicated with the voluptuous undulations of the boat, produced by the action and reaction of the water; and contemplating the radiance, beauty and splendor of the sun, the sky, the distant mountains, almost hid in the soft purple light of September air, and the clean verdant shores, rising in terrace like form, to the orchards, the groves, the gardens, and to the pleasant estrade fronting the family mansion. May we all find ourselves basking in that soft repose which sound health, unannoyed conscience, easy circumstances, and a warm and luminous atmosphere, combine to afford. Fifteen Years in the Senior Order of Shakers. Hervey Elkins. 1853. Quoted from page 80.

As we discussed at our first Zoom Talk and Tasting (focused on Cider and Cheese), the table drink for the early New Hampshire Shakers was hard apple cider mixed with a tiny amount of apple brandy. For this #WeekendRecipe we have a version called Brethren's Cider from the Shaker Almanac. To make this recipe you mix 1/4 cup (2 fl.oz) of apple brandy with 1 1/4 cups (10 fl. oz.) of chilled hard cider. The drink is then garnished with a lemon peel. (Miller and Fuller, Best of Shaker Cooking, 406.)

Please enjoy this Digital Puzzle from our harvest picnic post from yesterday! https://jigex.com/SMwS

Fall is a wonderful time to go for a picnic. You get a chance to take in the foliage while enjoying the last bit of warm weather. In his book Fifteen Years in the Senior Order of the Shakers, former Enfield Shaker Hervey Elkins described in detail just such an occurrence on a late season harvest. We kneel on the cold earth in thankfulness, open our large wooden pails, take therefrom cold beef, brown bread, white bread, with alternate strata of butter, sweet bread, applesauce... and pies. The food is palatable and sweet, but not highly seasoned or rich. We eat on such occasions from wooden or pewter plates. But away from home, we are considered by the sisters who prepare for us viands of greater variety than are to be found on the table at the mansion. Some of the youth bury beneath the heated embers a few potatoesdevour them dripping with butter or beef’s gravy. See more

We're pretty focused on cider, cheese, bread and pie as we celebrate our month-long All at Home: A Taste of History Zoom talks and tastings (this Thursday: History of Pie!) - But we're still enjoying the last of our summer garden's wonderful Shaker Red tomatoes! The Large Red Shaker Tomato variety was grown by the Shakers in Hancock, Massachusetts, pre-1830’s. It was one of the most popular and well-documented tomato varieties sold in the U.S. during the 1860’s. In Fearing Bu...rr’s 1865 book titled, Field and Garden Vegetables in America, he describes the Shaker Tomato as, Fruit sometimes smooth, often irregular, flattened, more or less ribbed: size large....well grown specimens are from 3 to 4 inches in diameter, 2-1/2 inches in depth and weigh from 8 to 12 ounces: skin smooth, glossy and when ripe of a fine red color: flesh pale red or rose color, the interior of the fruit being comparatively well filled: flavor good. This Shaker Tomato may be a little odd shaped, but it sure is filled with flavor and history!

Foliage in full force, we're ready for our PIE SALE this Saturday, October 10th at 10am! Purchase handmade sweet and savory pies to support this new fall tradition! 10am 'til we run out! This Pie Sale is inspired by this Thursday's "All at Home" Zoom Talk & Tasting, "Pie: A History!" - Tickets available @ http://ow.ly/ASPx50BFTbw "Pop in for some PIE inspiration! In this fun talk, culinary historian Sarah Lohman will look at the origins of pies, including meats pies and coffins. Then we’ll delve deep into the history of pumpkin pie and apple pie, stopping for digressions into the pumpkin spice flavor craze and the history of competitive pie eating."

Good Morning! Please enjoy this digital puzzle historic photograph - Can you recognize the view? https://jigex.com/SUPP

As the cold season hastily approaches us, explore the benefits of natural remedies to relieve various ailments. Horehound, grown at the Museum, is a medicinal herb known for its bitter taste, and ability to ease coughs, sore throats, and congestion. The compound, Marrubiin, found in Horehound works like an expectorant to clear airways and alleviate congestion. Horehound can be prepared as a lozenge for an on-the-go natural cough remedy. Check out this Horehound Lozenge recipe... below! Ingredients: - 1 cup dried horehound leaves -1 cup water -1 1/2 cup raw, local honey Directions: 1. In a small stainless steel pot, boil the horehound leaves and water, covered, for 25 minutes. 2. Cool and strain the mixture using a cheesecloth. 3. Reserve the liquid and compost the leaves. 4. Add the honey to the liquid, return to the pot, and bring to a boil once again. 5. Once boiling reduce to a simmer. 6. Cook mixture, stirring constantly, until the syrup reaches 300 degree F. 7. Grease a cookie sheet with butter or coconut oil and pour in the syrup. 8.When the syrup has cooled and is pliable, begin pulling off small pieces and rolling between the palms of a greased hand, forming a small ball. Work quickly as the mixture hardens pretty fast. 9. Allow lozenges to cool on a pan. 10. Store in a cool, dry place. Recipe from https://frugallysustainable.com/horehound-lozenges-homemad/