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told that, when the apple harvest started, they often held several apple-par ing
bees a week where they pared, quartered and sliced 10-20 bushels for dried
applet in an evening.
The Shakers were pioneers in the temperance movement in this
country. In early days, especially on the frontier, practically everyone
washed down his victuals with alcoholic liquors--cider, beer, ale, rum and
whiskies, At every husking bee, barn raising, haying, social event, the jug
made its rounds. Water was scarce, wells were dug and often located in the
barnyard for convenience in watering stock, and consequently polluted. Milk
was scarce because cows were raised chiefly for hides and breeding of oxen,
and the general impression was that milk caused various diseases, which it
probably did, since it was not handled in a very sanitary way.
Until the Shakers had ample herds, cider was their staple beverage.
Shaker cider was famous throughout the country because they used only per-
fect apples (not the rotten culls that most did), let them season just so in the
sun, and then pressed them at the height of their ripeness and juiciness.
In 1828 the head Shaker community at New Lebanon issued an edict
prohibiting the use of all alcoholic beverages throughout the Shaker communi-
ties--including beer, wine and cider. Shaker cider thereafter was relegated
to the vinegar barrel. Tea and coffee were both expensive imports. Sub-
stitutes used were black birch, spice bark, sassafras, mint, tansy, camomile
and redwood leaves in place of tea, while corn and other grains, peas, chicory
root and the seeds of the locust tree were parched and used in place of coffee.
In 1837 an edict prohibited the use of coffee, tea, meat and tobacco except