01/23/2026
Stepping onto the grounds of Hancock Shaker Village - also known as the City of Peace - you can’t help but feel inspired and intrigued by the landscape, the brightly colored buildings and the overwhelming sense of calm. Even before you know the history, you know something is different here. That there’s more beneath the surface.
For more than five years, we’ve been making a limited release hard cider from apples grown right on this land, celebrating it each summer just steps from where it’s harvested (more on our 2026 Cidermakers’ celebration soon!). The Shaker values of simplicity, patience, and purpose are baked into every bottle: hand-picked, wild-fermented, aged with time and trust. It’s one of our favorites, and one of our best.
Spending time here is a gift, but learning more about the Shakers - their ideals, and the convictions of their founder, Mother Ann Lee - has deepened our commitment to building a woman-owned business that’s principled, inventive, and unapologetically its own.
A few weeks ago, we were treated to an advanced screening of The Testament of Ann Lee - a new film exploring Ann Lee’s origin story and the founding of the Shakers in America - now in wide release. Much of this sweeping, epic film was at Hancock Shaker Village. Seeing this history brought vividly to life was thrilling.
The Shakers were pacifists, communalists and innovators. They rejected rigid gender roles, invented tools we still use today, and embraced a design philosophy that remains timeless: simple, functional, quietly beautiful. Perhaps most famously, and often misunderstood, their commitment to celibacy was, in its time, a radical feminist act, offering women leadership, autonomy, and refuge in a world that rarely did.
All of this is to say: we feel incredibly grateful to create our own work on land first cultivated by Ann Lee and the Shakers, and later protected by Amy Bess Miller. This year marks 66 years since the Village became a nonprofit museum, with a new visitors center opening soon. If you haven’t visited, or haven’t been in a while, consider this your invitation to the City of Peace. And if you see us out there, tending the apple trees, please say hi. 🍎
