Wassail Images / Cheese Tease

What a great night! Over 250 people joined us for the cold and frosty annual Wassailing at B&B HQ orchard. Festivities started late afternoon with games, crafts, making lanterns and noise makers, clay ‘green men’, as well as cooking dough twists over the fire. This was followed by a flaming torch procession through the orchard whilst making as much noise as possible to ward off evil spirits, culminating in ceremony to bless the trees for a fruitful harvest in the coming season – all very traditional and pagan in origin. We were very fortunate to be joined by the Lewes Skull Drummery – the Tub Thumpers! as well as atmospheric folk music from Ceol Na Mara, along with fabulous sausage rolls from the Podgy Pieman - and, of course, mulled cider!

You can find photos of our wassail on our social sites or at our Youtube channel. You can also read more about our approach to wassailing on the Sussex Stories website.

We love a good event to beat those winter blues – next on the agenda is a new one for us – a ‘Cheese & Cider Tasting Evening’. We’ve paired up with our friends at The Traditional Cheese Company and will be hosted at the new Tyler’s Ground Farm Shop in Blackboys. A fun evening with stories of how the cider and cheese are made, along with live folk music.

Fancy a fun night out? – Saturday 23rd March - tickets available via our events page on the website.