Community Sing at the Meeting House

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On September 8, 2018, we held a Community Sing in the Meeting House to sing this amazing space back into use after it’s recent preservation work. On a weekly basis, hundreds of Shakers gathered together to sing and dance in this space and we wanted to to relive that feeling of community with our guests.

Today, the Meeting House is open to daily guests and is utilized for music performances, special events and more. It’s one of the most photographed buildings at Shaker Village. Its simplicity and symmetry embody Shaker design, and its presence is awe-inspiring. Plan a visit soon and experience it for yourself!

Rocks that say 1813 and other cool facts

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In the changing historic landscape of Pleasant Hill, buildings came and buildings went. It’s impossible to view the photographic and archival evidence without getting the impression that this place used to look a lot different than it does today (an understatement, I know). Personally, I’ve always been impressed with the imposing presence that the 2nd Centre Family Dwelling (built 1812-1815) casts in the historic photos of the village. If you want to learn a little more about this building, I encourage you to visit the exhibit in the Farm Deacon’s Shop (incidentally, this dwelling stood just to the north of this spot).

The 1813 Centre Family Dwelling had a long, productive life at Pleasant Hill that was tragically cut short by a fire in 1932. Here’s how it was described in the March 4, 1932, account from the Harrodsburg Herald:

    A spectacular fire that threatened to wipe out a large portion of historic Shakertown, started Tuesday night about eleven o’clock in one of the oldest and handsomest of the splendid buildings. It was occupied by three families, two of which lost their entire possessions. Several other buildings were threatened, but were saved by the Harrodsburg fire company in charge of Chief K. B. Phillips, assisted by volunteers, who got on the roofs of the threatened buildings and swept off the sparks as they fell. The Pennebaker Home for Girls caught on fire several times, chiefly from dried leaves in the gutters, but the blazes were extinguished before any damage was done.

…

   The burned building was erected in 1813, according to the date on the stone structure. It was three and a half stories high and contained forty-two rooms, with a large finished basement of several compartments. It was located about 500 feet from Highway 68 which runs through the main part of the Shaker village, and faced West on a driveway. It was of handsome dressed stone with thick walls, the interior being priceless hand-fashioned woodwork made by the skilled artisans of the Shaker colony nearly a century and a quarter ago. The only water available for fighting the fire was from the large Shaker pond approximately 600 yards distant and across the highway from the burning building. The hose taken along with the pumping apparatus was not sufficient to reach the distance and the firemen sent back to Harrodsburg for more hose. The blaze was so far advanced in the stone building when discovered that all energies were concentrated on saving the nearby structures. The stone building was entirely gutted and when the tin roof caved in a veritable storm of spark fell in every direction, igniting even the clothing and hats of some of the spectators.

After the “storm of spark” subsided and the “spectacular” fire was extinguished, I imagine that the scene looked something like this (although I’m not sure when this picture was taken):

If you visit this location today, all you will see are the foundation stones peeking out on the surface, marking the footprint of this once massive building.  It’s all that remains of it – at least, all that remains onsite.  Because in 1937, much of the surviving stone was hauled to Harrodsburg to build a house for relatives of the Bohon family. The house still stands in town today (and is still in use), a subtle reminder that the history of Pleasant Hill is much bigger than the 3000 acres and 34 buildings that we care for today. There are a lot of inter-connections out there that we can’t forget about. Pleasant Hill is an integral part of Mercer County’s history, and vice-versa.

The coolest thing about this house? One of the stones used to build the rear wall was this:

Aaron Genton is the collections manager…

It’s Harvest Time!

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What do you know about sorghum? Enjoying sticky sorghum over warm, buttered cornbread is kind of like satiating Kentucky’s first sweet tooth. The crop has strong roots in Kentucky’s history, known for its value even outside of desserts. There are four major types of sorghum: grain, forage, biomass and sweet. Sorghum grain can be used as a gluten free flour alternative for baking, and it can even be popped like popcorn. Some sorghum varieties are used as pasture forage or silage for livestock feed. It’s also one of the primary ingredients in ethanol. Kentucky is among the nation’s primary producers of sweet sorghum, used to make the highly coveted sorghum syrup.

Sorghum being pressed at Shaker Village. What’s the difference between sorghum and molasses? Sorghum syrup comes from sorghum cane, and molasses comes from sugar cane.

Sorghum is a heat tolerant crop that does not require much water, making it the ideal plant to grow during the warmest part of the year. It does not originate in Kentucky, or even in the United States. It’s a cultivar of North Africa, making its way across the globe through ancient trading routes. The word Sorghum comes from the Latin words, “Syricum granum” or “Grain of Syria.”

In the United States, sorghum syrup has been used since the mid-1800s, but sorghum’s versatility was first made popular in the U.S. for its capacity in broom making! The Pleasant Hill Shakers relied on broom corn for their broom industry, and even cultivated sweet sorghum, making hundreds of gallons of sorghum syrup each year. The Pleasant Hill Shakers actually intercropped sorghum among young orchards, cultivating their orchards with annual crops as a way to increase food output in the years leading up to fruit production.

Apple trees and peach trees were planted at the same time, along with annual crops like sorghum, oats, even potatoes. After a few years when peach trees began to fruit, the annual crop planting would discontinue. Years later when the apple trees began producing, peach trees would be thinned from the orchard. Agriculture records indicate that the Pleasant Hill Shakers kept over 50 varieties of apple trees on their property!

Today, Shaker Village grows ten heirloom varieties known for their versatility and unique flavors. These varieties will fruit at different times from June-October. Some varieties, like the Yellow Transparent, are best known for their drying potential. Others, like the King David, are best for cider or to eat fresh. You can see The Orchard as soon as you drive onto our property. Come taste one of these varieties and see what you think!

The Shakers believed that the products of their harvest were gifts from God to be counted as blessings. Because the Shakers treated their crops as a blessing from God, it was sacrilege to waste any part of the harvest. We strive to emulate the Shaker practice of reducing waste by maintaining a closed loop energy system at the farm. All of the food in our garden is harvested for the restaurant, and anything the restaurant cannot use is sent back to the farm. These scraps are fed to the animals working in our deep litter compost pen, which eventually returns as energy rich soil back into the garden.

Celebrate Fall at Shaker Village to participate in these activities. Join us at HarvestFest on September 29 + 30 as we transform apples into cider using our heirloom orchard apples on a 19thcentury cider press. (Stick around for a demonstration on making hard cider as well!) Then, sample sorghum syrup from our horse powered sorghum press cooked down into that deliciously sticky syrup we’ve come to know as a part of harvest time here in Kentucky. Now all we need is a good homemade biscuit… wonder what the Trustees’ Table is cooking up?

Prefer to taste a little more? Check out our Hard Cider Bash on September 8. This Fresh Food Adventure highlights a menu of delicious ingredients from our orchard and garden and, of course, hard cider!

Bekah Roberts, Farm Program Specialist

The Meeting House is Open!

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Big news! The Meeting House has reopened. You may remember that we’ve been doing preservation work on it since last fall. Check out this post if you want to learn more.

We hope you’ll visit soon to see for yourself, but here’s some history, a few fun facts and a glimpse into the iconic view that we get to see everyday!

The reason this building is called the 1820 Meeting House is because it was the second Meeting House the Pleasant Hill Shakers built in the Village. Since then, it has gone through several preservation projects.

During the post-Shaker period, the Meeting House served many purposes, including home to the Shakertown Baptist Church and an automotive garage!

The Meeting House has a unique architectural structure, including a truss system, which allows the beams in the attic to hold up the second floor. This makes it so there aren’t any pillars or beams on the main floor to obstruct movement and dancing.

In 1968, the nonprofit organization that had been established in the early 1960s opened a museum on this site. The Meeting House was interpreted for some 50,000 guests that first year.

The second floor of the Meeting House was utilized as administrative offices until 1994, when the current Administration building was opened.

Beginning in 2016, Top to Bottom tours were offered weekly to give people a behind-the-scenes view of the Meeting House attic and the cellar underneath the building.

The Meeting House is the only white painted building on the property. While it was customary for Shakers to use white to denote the Meeting House, Kentucky is well-known for its white limestone, which is present in several of the other buildings on this site.

These copper lanterns can be found throughout the Village. We have more than 100 in use at anytime. They can also be purchased online in our shop!

Today, the Meeting House is open to daily guests and is utilized for music performances, special events and more. It’s one of the most photographed buildings at Shaker Village. Its simplicity and symmetry embody Shaker design, and its presence is awe-inspiring. Plan a visit soon and experience it for yourself!

Are you curious to see (and hear!) what it would have been like for the Shakers to sing together in the Meeting House? On a weekly basis, hundreds of Shakers gathered together to sing and dance in this space. Join us for our Community Sing at the Meeting House on September 8th and help us sing the space back into use!

Keeping Our (Horses) Cool

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Much like the Shakers, our farmers use draft horses to provide horsepower for a variety of purposes—to work the sorghum press, till certain fields, transport people and more. Because of the high visibility of the ever-popular Horse-Drawn Wagon Rides through the Village AND the vast number of hot days this summer, we receive questions from guests about our horses’ well-being pretty often. As equine and stable assistant, my main purpose is to care for, train and spoil the horses at Shaker Village. (Yes, I have a cool job.) As the heat rolls in during these summer months, our horses continue to get the five-star treatment they deserve. So, what makes horses happy?

Fun Fact: Animals such as cows, pigs, goats and sheep are unable to sweat… but, horses do sweat, which makes working in the heat a more bearable activity for them. You might see our horses working into a sweat while giving wagon rides on hot weekends, but there’s no need to worry. As a matter of fact, if the horses aren’t sweating, then I begin to worry. The sweat on a horse is doing an important job in the process of thermoregulation (more on that later). In fact, almost 70 percent of the horse’s body heat is lost through sweat evaporation. There are two particularly interesting benefits of sweat. Equine sweat produces a specific protein called latherin, which causes it to appear foamy and white as the harness makes contact with the skin. (This is where we get the saying “working up a lather.”) The latherin allows the sweat to spread further. Also, the sweat is slightly hypertonic, meaning it has more salt than other fluids. Increased salt content allows for more fluid to be drawn to the skin to cool. Together, these functions of sweat lead to a more efficient cooling rate.

Now, what about those really, REALLY hot days? Sometimes it’s just too hot for our horses to work—sweat or not. We pay close attention to the weather and follow a strict heat index policy, which considers both the temperature and the humidity. If the heat index rises to 100 or higher, our wagon rides are canceled for the day and the horses stay in shaded cool areas with plenty of water. On the days that it doesn’t reach the heat threshold, we utilize the best of our resources to keep the horses comfortable during their daily tasks. Water becomes our main concern. The average horse drinks 5-7 gallons of water in cool weather, at rest. With hotter weather causing elevated water loss through sweat, we see horses drink 20 gallons or more in a single day! Water is provided in our horses’ pastures via automatic waterers that provide unlimited fresh, cool water. Our horses also have access to a salt electrolyte block, which helps to restore the salt lost in their sweat. In between tours, the horses are given water and placed in front of a fan to cool them off. During their lunch break, they receive a large pile of hay, along with unlimited water.

Anyone know what thermoregulation is? (It’s the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different.) Horses are pretty efficient at this, but we help them out a little. The quickest way to cool our horses is by utilizing convection and conduction. Translation: after a good day’s work, our horses get to enjoy a nice cold hose down. Our horses are hosed until the skin and muscles become cool to the touch. Water on, water off, water on, water off…  As we hose our horses, we scrape the water off and continue to apply water so that the heat is transferred from the horse to the water. Once the horse has become cool to the touch, we scrape the last bit off water off the horses. Water that is left on the horse will trap and insulate the heat of the muscles. So, a horse that is turned out wet in the hot sun is at risk to become super-heated since the water is unable to evaporate before it becomes heated and stays trapped on the skin. Hosing them down is a process, but they enjoy every minute of it.

The horses at Shaker Village are well loved by staff, not to mention all the guests they get to meet on a weekly basis. You could say they are local celebrities around here. I’m lucky to work closely with such sweet, gentle horses. Whether it is our retired team of 25-year-old Percherons (the same breed the Shakers kept), or our younger active breeds, all of our horses are shown the best care possible. Plan a visit to learn about all the members of our farm family and the roles they play at the Village. Wagon Rides are available Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the end of October. Our horses can’t wait to meet you, and I look forward to seeing new faces and answering any questions you may have. I’ll be the one driving the wagon! Until then, happy (cool) trails!

Explore 3,000 acres of discovery by horseback! Harness your favorite steed for a backcountry ride through Kentucky forests, fields and creek crossings. The Preserve’s trail system includes 37 miles of horseback riding and carriage-friendly trails. Overnight boarding and Annual Equestrian Passes available. Learn more.

Gabriella Kreinbrook, Equine and Stable Assistant