POPECULLEN: Collaborative Work - Ward's Island Apple Tree Wassail

APPLE TREE WASSAILING ON WARD'S ISLAND

In 2017, we sang, with our family, to the apple trees that grow near the Island Café on Ward's Island. In 2018 we were be joined by our fellow islanders, as we figured that our apple trees needed extra encouragement, not just to 'bud bloom and bear', but also given how they've had to withstand that spring's high-water.

The summer and autumn/fall of 2018 saw a bumper crop of apples on the islands, with cider being pressed and now fermenting. Who are we to say, but we swore that the trees that we wassailed in 2019 were those that bloomed and bore fruit the best. Not leaving anything to chance, in 2020 we again invited islanders to add some 'oomph' to a rendition of a couple of verses of our own wassail song (see below). In 2021, due to pandemic-related restrictions we didn't organize a community-wide event, but encouraged people to find a tree of their own choice and conduct their own wassail ceremony.

THE CUSTOM OF WASSAILING

Traditionally, a wassail of this kind involves singing a song to an apple tree, in the hope that it will bring a bumper crop of apples for next year's cider-making. Where Simon comes from, in the South West of England, this often takes place on 17th January – old twelfth night, or "old Twelvy". This time of year is when the pressing of the apples ends, and farmers wait for the cider to ferment. One of the most well-know apple wassails is led by folk singer and accordion player Jim Causley. He leads a procession around his home town of Whimple, accompanying the wassailers as they walk from orchard to orchard. The procession comes to a halt at the chosen apple tree; a young child places a piece of cider-soaked toast into the boughs of the tree; a short 'incantation' is given; pots and pans are clattered (and shotguns shot) to scare away evil spirits (or, in more recent traditions, to wake the tree from its winter slumber) before the crowd break into song. Hot cider is taken by all, more noise is made, and the crowd moves on to the next orchard.

Wassailing. (Photo:Jim Belisle 2019)

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

All meet at the Little Clubhouse;
Bring pots & pans to clatter;
Bring cider (if you can) and a mug.
Musicians: bring a fiddle or accordion, melodion, or other folk instrument, to accompany the singing – (here's the tune.)

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS

Drink some cider;
Walk as a group to our chosen apple tree, with musical accompaniment;
Young islanders perform the duty of placing cider-soaked toast in the boughs;
The incantation is read;
All and sundry bang pots and pans and shout;
Then we sing two verses of the wassail song;
More noise is made, and cider-drinking continues;
Then we find other apple trees to wassail;
And that's that!

THE INCANTATION

This is spoken to the apple tree:

Here's to thee, old apple tree,

That blooms well, bears well.

Hatfuls, capfuls,

Three bushel bagfuls,

An' all under one tree.

Hurrah! Hurrah!

THE WARD'S ISLAND WASSAIL SONG

This is our own, version of the song – an abridged version of The Whimple Wassail by Jim Causley, (which was collected from John Sheppard.)

We're keeping it short & sweet this year. Just two verses:

A wassail a wassail, the moon she shines down

Our apples are ripe and the nuts they are brown

For when you shall bud dear old apple tree

And when you shall bear we’ll sing unto thee

With our wassail a-wassail a-wassail

And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Oh apple tree prosper, bud, bloom and bear

So we may have plenty of cider next year

And where there’s a barrel we hope there’ll be ten

So we may have cider when we come again

With our wassail a-wassail a-wassail

And joy come to our jolly wassail!

THE TUNE

A live-recording (©lan Rosevear) of Jim Causley leading a rehearsal of two verses of the Whimple Wassail song, outside the New Fountain Inn at Whimple (Devon, England)

Wassailing in 2018. (Photo:Jim Belisle)

WASSAILING ISLAND APPLE TREES

Article for Toronto Island Residents Association 'Island Trees' supplement. Fall 2020:

You may be wondering why there is an abundance of fruit on the islands’ apple trees this year, and for those who joined in the singing, one cold night last January, there can be only one answer: it must have been the Ward’s Island Apple Tree Wassail!

On the face of it, the wassail is a simple get-together, with much singing and merry-making, all to wish the trees waes hael (“good health) and to ask for “hatfuls, capfuls, three bushel bagfuls” of apples in the coming year. It’s held after dark on 17th January – Twelfth Night on the old (Julian) calendar – and certainly feels, in its performance, like other Christmastide traditions, in which singers move from door-to-door, asking for alms. But those who wassail apple trees also recognize the influence of Saxon land charms, pre-Roman British magic, or even the celebrations of Pomona (the Roman goddess of orchards, and of abundance).

During the ceremony, wassailers feed the trees roots with cider, and provide cider-soaked toast for the birds to help keep insect-pests at bay. They perform an incantation: “Here’s to thee, old apple tree” they declaim. In this phrase we’re given a clue to the significance of wassailing for many who’ve revived and who now uphold this tradition. Here, the tree is addressed, not as an object, but as one of many living beings with whom we are intricately-related and mutually-dependent. It’s an opportunity to affirm our close-relationship with our nonhuman kin – one that has been eclipsed over time by the cultures that came to dominate Europe and which were imposed here, and elsewhere. As a form of magic, wassailing is, as Chris Gosden suggests in The History of Magic (2020), a way that we can experiment with the relationships that we have with other forms of life.

For dedicated cider-makers, the wassail also marks the end of the picking and pressing season. It’s a time to rest, and to celebrate the role that cider continues to play in the lives of local people. Traditional, farmhouse ciders use what we now call a “wild ferment” – with fermentation taking place only from the yeasts and other microbes from the apples and cider-barns. Nothing else is added to the ferment: no commercial yeasts, sugars, or additional flavours. This is also the case for ciders made in Normandy, Brittany, Asturias, and the Basque Country. In Ontario, some cider-makers are also turning to their indigenous yeasts, and with the recent enthusiasm for cider-making on the island, wassailing can draw our attention, not only to the trees and apples, but also to the microbial life that can help produce a distinct and unique – and flavourful – expression of our ecology. So “Here’s to thee, island apple trees (and to its cider-makers)!"

Simon Pope, September 2020.

The Ward's Island Apple Tree Wassail takes place on Menecing, which is the traditional territory and Treaty Land of our friends the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. We acknowledge and respect the crab apple species that thrive on the island, their ecological relationships, and their part in Indigenous foodways, cultural life, and material culture.

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