As daylight slowly lengthens it is time to start thinking about what crops to grow but it is just as important to think about harvesting and how to maximise the yield, avoid wastage and how the harvest can be stored.  Apples are one such crop that often goes to waste and even with a range of apple varieties maturing at different times there is still likely to be a large proportion of the crop which cannot be utilised at the point of maturity and careful storage still only allows for weeks rather than months before the likelihood that fruit will perish.

Initially when we began to get a large harvest we pressed the apples into cider and for cider lovers the different varieties produced some fine beverage.  However we ended up with more cider than we could either drink or sell so  for the last couple of years we have converted the apples mainly to  juice along with a small amount of cider.  The pure juice will store for 2-3 days in the fridge or can be pasteurised at 75C but our attempt at this was not always successful and we ended up with a lot of bottles that were undrinkable.  We found the best solution was to invest in plastic freezer containers (do not store in glass bottles as we tried this and expansion of the liquid during freezing results in broken bottles) and the freshly pressed apple juice goes straight in to the freezer, there is no wastage, and we have a supply for as long as it lasts.   Now the whole family gain from not only having a delicious drink but also the health benefits of getting one of your 5 a day as well as an immune system boost in the winter months.

So if you have an apple tree or two that produces well and fruit has been going to waste it is worth investing in a press, or if you don’t have the facility and live nearby join in with our pressing in the autumn.

Meanwhile if you are less concerned with science and feeling in need of cheer now that the Christmas decorations have to come down then why not embrace Twelfth Night with the ancient pagan ritual of ‘wassailing’ your apple trees.  Coming from the Anglo- Saxon term ‘was hael’ meaning ‘good health’ this tradition was carried out in the same manner as carol singers began to ‘wassail’ the home, likewise they wanted to wish their apple orchards all the best too (though obviously with selfish motives).  It doesn’t seem to matter too much what date you do this on as it was originally  Twelfth Night, being the 5th  January but then due to the introduction of the Georgian calendar it moved to 17th January, being the twelfth night after Twelfth Night.  The exact details of the ritual as with many things have been lost in time (as well as cider) but the main object seems to be to feed cider to the tree roots and ‘feed’ the tree pieces of bread or toast.  The  original ‘wassail’ drink though was more than just cider but a mixture of cider/ale, spices, apples and egg yolk which was offered up for good health at Christmas.  The wassailing of the home, which became carol singing, appears to have been interpreted by country folk as a toast to the apple orchards, without the fruit of which there would be no wassail drink.

Dating back to the 8th century, the ritual is still carried out by some in our apple-growing counties and involves a wassail king and queen leading a procession to the largest apple tree in the orchard and hanging pieces of bread soaked in cider from it’s branches whilst singing something like “

Apple tree, apple tree we all come to wassail thee,
Bear this year and next year to bloom and blow,
Hat fulls, cap fulls, three cornered sacks fills…”

The general idea though is to make enough noise to ward off evil spirits who our ancestors believed were responsible for poor harvests.   Science now tells us that weather conditions and biennial cropping might be the answer to harvest reduction but we have new perils such as global warming, bee decline and invasive pests and diseases to contend with too.  But with all these things to think about it’s enough to make you don a king or queen’s outfit and get out there making as much noise as possible with your toast and cider and summon up as much good spirit as possible for what it’s worth.

Happy Wassailing!