May Day 2019 – Mon 6 May

19th March 201919th March 2019 by John

By popular demand the Snake Oil Charmers will be on the Main Stage again in 2019. Les Nichols (blues guitarist) will be doing his thang too. Home made cakes and buns, tea, coffee and possibly some apple juice on our stall. Raving Mae Morris side will be strutting their stuff and dancing round the May Pole. Linda King, Artist in Residence will be creating fantastic works of art with anything she can find. It FREE ENTRY and it’s gonna be great!

Wassail 2019

1st January 201919th March 2019 by Yvette

This Sunday, 13th January from 12 noon – 1pm at Pickering Road Community Orchard, Cranberry Way, Pickering Road, HU4 7AQ. The event starts at 12 o’clock – prompt! Facebook

Where is the orchard?

What happens at an orchard Wassail? The ritual of wassailing take place every January and is lots of fun, see the video below.

Video – Wassailing at the orchard

January sees the ‘Wassailing’; a ritual held around the 12th night, an ancient custom of visiting orchards, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year.

The word wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon greeting Wæs þu hæl, meaning “be thou hale”—i.e., “be in good health”.

The Lambswool (mulled cider) is given to the roots of the trees and pieces of toast dipped in cider are stuck on branches for the Robins, who are the guardians of the orchard.

Harvest is usually mid August to October with open days taking place on Sundays and sometimes Saturdays.

For a donation of £2, you can help yourself to 2kg of the apples of your choice.

We also sell apple juice which is wonderful and very tasty. After recent harvests we have had the juice put into glass bottles and sold at local outlets.

We have a small apiary at the orchard overseen by local beekeeper Wendy Maslin. Honey produced at the orchard is also available to buy.