The Longest Johns, "Gloucestershire Wassail"

Tradition.

Orchard Notes details a brilliant January tradition ...

[T]o proceed to their orchards in the evening, accompanied by their farm servants, and carrying with them a large pitcher or milk-pail filled with cider, with roasted apples hissing therein. They forthwith encircled one of the best bearing trees, and drunk the following toast three times. The remains of the wassailing liquor was then thrown against the trees, under the idea that a fruitful year would be the result.

Here’s to thee, old apple-tree,

Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst, blow,

And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!

Hats-full! caps-full!

Bushel, bushel, sacks-full!

And my pockets full, too! 

Hurra!

Thanks, Mum!

Wassailing.

Wassail.

On Twelfth Eve, in Devonshire, it is customary for the farmer to leave his warm fireside, accompanied by a band of rustics, with guns, blunderbusses, etc., presenting an appearance which at other times would be somewhat alarming. Thus armed, the band proceed to an adjoining orchard, where is selected one of the most fruitful and aged of the apple trees, grouping round which they stand and offer up their invocations in the following doggerel rhyme: 

Here's to thee

Old apple tree!

Whence thou mayst bud,

And whence thou mayst blow,

And whence thou mayst bear,

Apples enow:

Hats full,

Caps full,

Bushels,bushels, sacks full,

And my pockets full, too!

Huzza! huzza!

The cider-jug is then passed around, and with many a hearty shout, the party fire off their guns, charged with powder only, amidst the branches.

London News, January 11, 1851

The National Trust on the hullabaloo in the orchard ...

Revellers typically visited local orchards and fruit trees, sang songs, made a hullabaloo (often by banging pots and pans) and were rewarded by the orchard’s grateful owner with some form of warm, spiced alcoholic drink from a communal wassail bowl or cup. Sometimes a topping of apple, known as "lamb's wool," would be added.

The WASSAIL

Give way, give way, ye gates, and win

An easy blessing to your bin

And basket, by our entering in.

May both with manchet stand replete;

Your larders, too, so hung with meat,

That though a thousand, thousand eat,

Yet, ere twelve moons shall whirl about

Their silv'ry spheres, there's none may doubt

But more's sent in than was served out.

Next, may your dairies prosper so,

As that your pans no ebb may know;

But if they do, the more to flow,

Like to a solemn sober stream,

Bank'd all with lilies, and the cream

Of sweetest cowslips filling them.

Then may your plants be press'd with fruit,

Nor bee or hive you have be mute,

But sweetly sounding like a lute.

Last, may your harrows, shares, and ploughs,

Your stacks, your stocks, your sweetest mows,

All prosper by your virgin-vows.

--Alas! we bless, but see none here,

That brings us either ale or beer;

In a dry-house all things are near.

Let's leave a longer time to wait,

Where rust and cobwebs bind the gate;

And all live here with needy fate;

Where chimneys do for ever weep

For want of warmth, and stomachs keep

With noise the servants' eyes from sleep.

It is in vain to sing, or stay

Our free feet here, but we'll away:

Yet to the Lares this we'll say:

'The time will come when you'll be sad,

'And reckon this for fortune bad.

Robert Herrick

Then here’s to the heartening wassail, 

Wherever good fellows are found; 

Be its master instead of its vassal, and order the glasses around.

Ogden Nash

TWELFTH NIGHT

      Now, now the mirth comes

      With the cake full of plums,

Where bean's the king of the sport here ;

      Beside we must know,

      The pea also

Must revel, as queen, in the court here.

      Begin then to choose,

      This night as ye use,

Who shall for the present delight here,

      Be a king by the lot,

      And who shall not

Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here.

      Which known, let us make

      Joy-sops with the cake ;

And let not a man then be seen here,

      Who unurg'd will not drink

      To the base from the brink

A health to the king and queen here.

      Next crown a bowl full

      With gentle lamb's wool :

Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,

      With store of ale too ;

      And thus ye must do

To make the wassail a swinger.

      Give then to the king

      And queen wassailing :

And though with ale ye be whet here,

      Yet part from hence

      As free from offence

As when ye innocent met here.

Robert Herrick

LAMB'S WOOL

Ingredients

• 1 liter traditional ale or traditional hard cider
• 1/2 liter cider 
• 6 apples, peeled and cored
• 2 tbsp Calvados
• 1 nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 tsp fresh ground ginger

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 120C
2. Prepare the apples 
3. Core the 6 apples fully, getting rid of the pips. Lightly butter the baking tray. Sprinkle optional Calvados on apples. Place the apples on the baking tray about 6cm (2 inches) apart – they will swell up a little. Bake the apples at 120C for about an hour or so – so they become soft and pulpy and the skins are easy to peel away.
4. In a large thick bottomed saucepan (which is quite tall to avoid splashes when whisking) add the sugar. Cover the sugar in a small amount of the ale (or cider) and mead and heat gently. Stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved.
5. dd in the ground ginger and grate in the whole of the nutmeg. Stir, and keeping the pan on a gentle simmer, slowly add in all the rest of the ale (or cider). Leave for 10 minutes on a gentle heat as you deal with the apples.
6. Take the baked apples out of the oven to cool slightly for 10 minutes – they should now be soft and pulpy.
7. Break open the apples and scoop out the baked flesh into a bowl, discarding the skin. Then take a fork and mash this apple pulp up, while it is still warm, into a smooth purée with no lumps. Add the apple purée into the ale (or cider) lambswool, mixing it in with a whisk.
8. Let the saucepan continue to warm everything through for thirty minutes, on a very gentle heat, until ready to drink. When warmed through use the whisk again for a couple of minutes (or use a stick blender) to briskly and vigorously froth the drink up and mix everything together.
9. The apple and light froth will float to the surface, and depending on how much you have whisked it, the more it looks like lamb’s wool. Note: to traditionally froth drinks up they were normally poured continuously between two large serving jugs to get air into the drink.
10. Ladle the hot Lambswool into heat-proof mugs or glasses and grate over some nutmeg, or pour the drink into a communal bowl (with several thick pieces of toast in the bottom) to pass around if wassailing.

FARMER'S WASSAIL

Ingredients

• 1 quart hard cider
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 or 6 pieces cracked ginger or 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 2 cups dark rum
• Juice and thinly pared rind of 1 lemon
• Sugar, to taste
• 2 slices toasted bread (if desired)
• 6 or 8 baked crab apples or 2 or 3 baked large apples

Instructions

1. Heat ale in saucepan until just about to boil. 
2. Stir in spices, rum, lemon juice, slivered rind and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves.
3. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Do not boil at any time. 
4. Remove from heat and either pour into punch bowl or individual cups and add toast and apples. 

WASSAILING the APPLE TREES

Sting, "Soul Cake"

Howling.

"Apple Howling, or how to serenade an orchard ..."

Here’s to thee, old apple tree,

Whence thou mayst bud

And whence thou mayst blow!

And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!

Hats full! Caps full!

Bushel—bushel—sacks full,

And my pockets full too! Huzza!

Huzza!

Waes-hael for knight and dame!

   O merry be their dole!

Drink-hael! in Jesu's name

   We fill the tawny bowl;

But cover down the curving crest,

Mould of the Orient Lady's breast.

Waes-hael! yet lift no lid:

   Drain ye the reeds for wine.

Drink-hael! the milk was hid

   That soothed that Babe divine;

Hush'd, as this hollow channel flows,

He drew the balsam from the rose.

Waes-hael! thus glow'd the breast

   Where a God yearn'd to cling;

Drink-hael! so Jesu press'd

   Life from its mystic spring;

Then hush and bend in reverent sign

And breathe the thrilling reeds for wine.

Waes-hael! in shadowy scene

   Lo! Christmas children we:

Drink-hael! behold we lean

   At a far Mother's knee;

To dream that thus her bosom smiled,

And learn the lip of Bethlehem's Child.

Robert Stephen Hawker

Sphering.

Next I'll cause my hopeful lad,

If a wild apple can be had,

To crown the hearth;

Lar thus conspiring with our mirth;

Then to infuse

Our browner ale into the cruse;

Which, sweetly spiced, we'll first carouse

Unto the Genius of the house.

Then the next health to friends of mine.

Loving the brave Burgundian wine,

High sons of pith,

Whose fortunes I have frolick'd with;

Such as could well

Bear up the magic bough and spell;

And dancing 'bout the mystic Thyrse,

Give up the just applause to verse;

To those, and then again to thee,

We'll drink, my Wickes, until we be

Plump as the cherry,

Though not so fresh, yet full as merry

As the cricket,

The untamed heifer, or the pricket,1

Until our tongues shall tell our ears,

We're younger by a score of years.

Thus, till we see the fire less shine

From th' embers than the kitling's eyne,

We'll still sit up,

Sphering about the wassail cup,

To all those times

Which gave me honour for my rhymes;

The coal once spent, we'll then to bed,

Far more than night bewearied.

Robert Herrick

Wassail.

On Twelfth Eve, in Devonshire, it is customary for the farmer to leave his warm fireside, accompanied by a band of rustics, with guns, blunderbusses, etc., presenting an appearance which at other times would be somewhat alarming. Thus armed, the band proceed to an adjoining orchard, where is selected one of the most fruitful and aged of the apple trees, grouping round which they stand and offer up their invocations in the following doggerel rhyme: 

Here's to thee

Old apple tree!

Whence thou mayst bud,

And whence thou mayst blow,

And whence thou mayst bear,

Apples enow:

Hats full,

Caps full,

Bushels,bushels, sacks full,

And my pockets full, too!

Huzza! huzza!

The cider-jug is then passed around, and with many a hearty shout, the party fire off their guns, charged with powder only, amidst the branches.

London News, January 11, 1851

The WASSAIL

Give way, give way, ye gates, and win

An easy blessing to your bin

And basket, by our entering in.

May both with manchet stand replete;

Your larders, too, so hung with meat,

That though a thousand, thousand eat,

Yet, ere twelve moons shall whirl about

Their silv'ry spheres, there's none may doubt

But more's sent in than was served out.

Next, may your dairies prosper so,

As that your pans no ebb may know;

But if they do, the more to flow,

Like to a solemn sober stream,

Bank'd all with lilies, and the cream

Of sweetest cowslips filling them.

Then may your plants be press'd with fruit,

Nor bee or hive you have be mute,

But sweetly sounding like a lute.

Last, may your harrows, shares, and ploughs,

Your stacks, your stocks, your sweetest mows,

All prosper by your virgin-vows.

--Alas! we bless, but see none here,

That brings us either ale or beer;

In a dry-house all things are near.

Let's leave a longer time to wait,

Where rust and cobwebs bind the gate;

And all live here with needy fate;

Where chimneys do for ever weep

For want of warmth, and stomachs keep

With noise the servants' eyes from sleep.

It is in vain to sing, or stay

Our free feet here, but we'll away:

Yet to the Lares this we'll say:

'The time will come when you'll be sad,

'And reckon this for fortune bad.

Robert Herrick

Then here’s to the heartening wassail, 

Wherever good fellows are found; 

Be its master instead of its vassal, and order the glasses around.

Ogden Nash

TWELFTH NIGHT

      Now, now the mirth comes

      With the cake full of plums,

Where bean's the king of the sport here ;

      Beside we must know,

      The pea also

Must revel, as queen, in the court here.

      Begin then to choose,

      This night as ye use,

Who shall for the present delight here,

      Be a king by the lot,

      And who shall not

Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here.

      Which known, let us make

      Joy-sops with the cake ;

And let not a man then be seen here,

      Who unurg'd will not drink

      To the base from the brink

A health to the king and queen here.

      Next crown a bowl full

      With gentle lamb's wool :

Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,

      With store of ale too ;

      And thus ye must do

To make the wassail a swinger.

      Give then to the king

      And queen wassailing :

And though with ale ye be whet here,

      Yet part from hence

      As free from offence

As when ye innocent met here.

Robert Herrick

LAMB'S WOOL

Ingredients

• 1 liter traditional ale or traditional hard cider
• 1/2 liter cider 
• 6 apples, peeled and cored
• 2 tbsp Calvados
• 1 nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 tsp fresh ground ginger

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 120C
2. Prepare the apples 
3. Core the 6 apples fully, getting rid of the pips. Lightly butter the baking tray. Sprinkle optional Calvados on apples. Place the apples on the baking tray about 6cm (2 inches) apart – they will swell up a little. Bake the apples at 120C for about an hour or so – so they become soft and pulpy and the skins are easy to peel away.
4. In a large thick bottomed saucepan (which is quite tall to avoid splashes when whisking) add the sugar. Cover the sugar in a small amount of the ale (or cider) and mead and heat gently. Stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved.
5. dd in the ground ginger and grate in the whole of the nutmeg. Stir, and keeping the pan on a gentle simmer, slowly add in all the rest of the ale (or cider). Leave for 10 minutes on a gentle heat as you deal with the apples.
6. Take the baked apples out of the oven to cool slightly for 10 minutes – they should now be soft and pulpy.
7. Break open the apples and scoop out the baked flesh into a bowl, discarding the skin. Then take a fork and mash this apple pulp up, while it is still warm, into a smooth purée with no lumps. Add the apple purée into the ale (or cider) lambswool, mixing it in with a whisk.
8. Let the saucepan continue to warm everything through for thirty minutes, on a very gentle heat, until ready to drink. When warmed through use the whisk again for a couple of minutes (or use a stick blender) to briskly and vigorously froth the drink up and mix everything together.
9. The apple and light froth will float to the surface, and depending on how much you have whisked it, the more it looks like lamb’s wool. Note: to traditionally froth drinks up they were normally poured continuously between two large serving jugs to get air into the drink.
10. Ladle the hot Lambswool into heat-proof mugs or glasses and grate over some nutmeg, or pour the drink into a communal bowl (with several thick pieces of toast in the bottom) to pass around if wassailing.

FARMER'S WASSAIL

Ingredients

• 1 quart hard cider
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 or 6 pieces cracked ginger or 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 2 cups dark rum
• Juice and thinly pared rind of 1 lemon
• Sugar, to taste
• 2 slices toasted bread (if desired)
• 6 or 8 baked crab apples or 2 or 3 baked large apples

Instructions

1. Heat ale in saucepan until just about to boil. 
2. Stir in spices, rum, lemon juice, slivered rind and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves.
3. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Do not boil at any time. 
4. Remove from heat and either pour into punch bowl or individual cups and add toast and apples. 

WASSAILING the APPLE TREES