Gardening at Enfield Shaker Museum

The life and finances of the historic Enfield Shaker community revolved around agriculture. The most important agricultural industry was the community’s garden seed business. The Shakers cultivated and gathered vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, sorted the seeds in small paper envelopes, and sold them. While the Shakers were not the first seed merchants in America, they were the first to sell packaged seeds in small amounts for retail sale.

The Enfield, New Hampshire, Shakers were also known for the production of patent medicines from herbs grown or foraged in the Village.

The Museum keeps the Enfield Shakers’ agricultural legacy alive by cultivating three distinct gardens and offering related programming. For more information, please visit the following pages:


Museum Garden Plants

CSA Program

Community Garden

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