ole twelfth night
By emily on January 19, 2018 6:45 am
It's "ole 12th night" (January 17th). Last year on this day we brewed a up pot of egg, apple, cider, and brandy filled wassail. I also made a traditional apple Sussex cake using the rest of the honey a beekeeper friend gave us from that season. As the traditions goes we dipped bread pieces in the wassail and put them in the tree's. We then sang to the tree's and poured some wassail on the ground for them. Then we went inside, made a fire. We ate on the Sussux cake and drank the wassail for the rest of the week. It felt very fortifying.
That next spring the pear tree's that hadn't bloomed the 2 years prior were full of blooms and later that season the tree was filled with pears (we never got to eat any of them as the critters ate them all) but we did get about half of the harvest of the most delicious peaches I've ever eaten & the cherry tree also produced (but again - the critters ate them all).
Sadly all the tree's in our old garden/orchard were clear cut after we sold our house this fall, and the bee's who made the honey that was in the yummy Sussex apple cake didn't make it through the cold and warming snaps that we've been having in the midwest this winter.
I felt a mix of gratitude and loss this old twelfth night.
I was a madrigal singer in a past life I feel a mixture of gratitude and loss for that season as well...
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