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Saturday 22 November 2008

Cider with Dave  

Matthew Reid sips cider in the Cotswolds

One dark moonless January night, in an orchard at the foot of the Cotswolds, I found myself among 20 to 30 figures encircling a colossal, ancient apple tree, chanting: 'Here's to thee old apple tree, we wassail thee!'

We had been gathered together by Dave Kaspar, stalwart of the award-winning Stroud Farmers’ Market and supplier of delicious fresh apple juice for my wedding, at his farm near Brookthorpe in Gloucestershire. Wassailing is essentially an old English drinking custom. The word wassail means, in Old English, ‘Be thou hale!’ which is a more swashbuckling way of saying, ‘Cheers!’ According to Dave, the idea of wassailing apple trees is to offer them a toast of good health, to thank them for last year’s crop and to ask for a good growing season ahead. The practice is ancient but still fairly common throughout the cider-producing regions of the West Country, driven by a healthy respect for nature and the natural superstition of folk who depend on the weather for a living. Plus of course, it’s a good excuse to drink lots of cider on a miserable night in January.

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