Community Garden 1759

The earliest garden was planted near the Wagner Cabin in 1754. The area was later enlarged by the head gardener, Jacob Lung, to include one-half acre and appear as it does today. Members of the community worked in the garden together and then shared the produce in an arrangement they called "the Oeconomy." These are the only known well-documented colonial community gardens in America, and they remain community gardens today. In a letter of August 14, 1754, Br. Jacob Loesch wrote that from May 8 to July 5 they had salad every day for dinner and nearly every evening also, and when the salad came to an end they ate cucumbers for three weeks, with three or four meals of sugar peas, and squashes twice.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina · United States