All you "can" eat

All of the Shaker communities were deeply committed to food cultivation since the societies were originally formed by the coalescence of several adjacent farms. In their typical industrious manner, when there was more food than the Shakers needed to feed their own community members, they began selling their food to the “outside world.” The high quality of their products and their honest dealings garnered them respect and a good reputation. The earliest known food production occurred in New Lebanon in 1828 and involved the packaging and sale of dried sweet corn. Another well-known industry was apple products such as applesauce and cider made from the communities’ own apple orchards. And one of the best-known innovations was the packaging and sale of seeds in paper packets.

The canned vegetable industry was mainly located in the Mount Lebanon and Watervliet communities. It began in the early 1880s and lasted until the 1930s. Labels from these cans, such as the ones pictured here, are very hard to find today and, thus, garner high prices at auction. These are brightly colored, beautiful examples of Shaker can labels. The string bean label is from Mount Lebanon and the tomato label is from the Watervliet community. Limited available records indicate that in 1884, the Mount Lebanon community produced up to 500 cans of string beans in a day. In the 1920s, Sister Lillian Barlow entered into a business arrangement with the Burpee Can Sealer Company to market Shaker-grown canned fruits and vegetables under the name Home Products Association. It was a short-lived business and there are little to no records left of the details. As an aside, it is interesting that from 1837 to 1847, the New Lebanon ministry which was concerned with animal welfare encouraged Shaker communities to become vegetarian. For some time, those eating a “bloodless diet” ate in a separate section of the dining room. The Shakers’ emphasis of natural, unadulterated food, whole grains, fruit and vegetables, their cooking many vegetables with the skins on and their saving the liquid from boiling vegetables for soup were routine Shaker practices that again demonstrate how the Shakers were ahead of their time.