Wassailling a merry tune

good spirits only

Greetings, Ciderling! 

Wassail this then?

We always bang on about the Bignose and Beardy Wassail. So, what’s it all about? Do you really wanna know? Then read on. 

On Saturday, we held our annual “Apple Howling”.

We laughed, we danced, we poured cider on tree roots. There was a lot of fire, shouting, and bashing of pots and pans. Good times.

Scaring off bad spirits involves fire. Lots of it.

It wasn’t just for larks though. This was Very Important Cider Business. It’s tradition to have a wassail on the Old Twelfth Night to encourage a bountiful harvest of apples in the coming year.

Fancy dress optional. Well, not for us.

Some people hang slices of toast soaked in cider. We mostly stick to drinking it, with the occasional splish splash on the tree roots. It’s to ward off evil spirits and thank the fruit tree spirits for all the good apple-ing they’ve done for us. People have wassailed for centuries. Even ol’ Billy Shakespeare mentioned the wassail in several plays.

Basically, we sucked up to the spirits so they make the trees give us barrowfuls of apples again. 

You can read more about the tradition here. We especially like this bit...

“The noisy banishing of spirits seems to bear a close relationship to the rural folk custom of Charivari, or skimmington ride, in which a wrongdoer would be shamed by a large group of people parading around their house, making loud and discordant music.”

So in the old days if you did something wrong people would come and subject you to terrible music. Like a travelling improv jazz fusion band invading your home. 

No offence, jazz fans.

If you want to recreate a wassail at home (we recommend doing it outdoors, sans jazz), you can pick up a limited edition wassail mixed six-pack here. 

Nepotism? I don’t even know ‘im!

One of the highlights of the wassail is always the clay workshops, run by local artist Katharine Rabson-Stark. Aka, Mrs Beardy. Over 50 clay tree of life plaques were made this year. 

Which frankly wore Katharine out. So here’s a shameless plug by way of thanks….her fantastic pottery work is available to buy from Chalk Gallery in Lewes. If you value hand-crafted one-off pieces of art, you’re in for a treat. 

Katharine uses the pinch and coil method to manipulate clay.  

“The shape of my hand, and the mood I am in, influence the finished pieces and I seek to capture the time that this slow method of making encapsulates.”

Slow methods of making are a Beardy family trait. Did you know it takes at least a year for our apple juice to ferment and mature into cider? Patience pays off.

🎟️ In the draw

This month’s subscriber prize is a 200ml bottle of our Spirit of Cider. It’s a bit like a gin or vodka type spirit, (though it actually a form of Calvados) best mixed with tonic. Refreshing! As always, we’ll announce the winner on our socials. So, gissa follow. 

The apple tree spirits will definitely (probably) approve. They’ll even bless you with some cider*.

Cheers!
BN&B

📅 2025 events are on our website

*If you go to our website, add it to your cart, and pay for it at checkout. The spirits don’t work for free.