Thanks to everyone who joined us for our orchard Wassail on Saturday 25th January.
We must be doing something right, as Mother nature was on our side and blessed us with a (mostly) dry day in the eye of the crazy storms.
It’s so great to see the community come together in such joyous celebration. Last year’s orchard cider and juice was tasting fantastic and the trees were certainly woken up. Although they may be heading for another extended nap until the weather improves.
Thanks to the Raffidy Dumitz Band for the music and West Cornwalls finest Osses for keeping things weird and wonderful.
And a huge shoutout to all who volunteer at the orchard. From cutting the grass, putting up lights, making risk assessments, baking cakes, playing music, learning the songs and dance, making cider, serving the food, teas, coffees, weaving willow, manning the bar and so much more. None of this would be possible without you and it really is incredible what we can pull off when we work together.
At the start of the celebrations, Rupert Manley, a Director of the Community Orchard CIC, shared the excellent news that the Penbeagle Nature Reserve has been formally declared by Cornwall Council as a Local Nature Reserve. This will ensure long-term protection for the area.
Visitors were invited to make head-dresses from Orchard greenery, children enjoyed some craft activities and people enjoyed trying out the cider made from last year’s apples. The Raffidy Dumitz band and a trio of ‘Osses’ entertained the crowd with traditional music and dancing.
The newly created Orchard band & choir led the group in singing wassailing songs and a group of orchard volunteers then danced around the tree with cries of “huzzah” and “wassail”.
The Green Man led the blessing of the largest apple tree in the orchard, a Winter Peach Apple tree, with cider and toast and then the band, ‘Osses’ and dancers then led the crowd around the orchard, with much banging and drumming to encourage the trees and plants to provide a good harvest in the coming year.
The fire was lit and the music and dancing continued until dusk. The celebrations concluded with refreshments in the Core, including a delicious vegan curry cooked by orchard volunteers which included some produce grown in the orchard.
Thanks to Tesco Groundworks who funded this event.
Yeghes da! Here’s to the next celebration 
Here’s some beautiful moments of the day captured by Joanna Natalija Photo . Many thanks for sharing these with us.
Thanks to everyone who shared these photos too.
