On Sunday, Feb. 23, Champlain Orchards welcomed community members to take part in the Blessing of the Trees, also known as Wassailing. Wassailing is a traditional ceremony in which participants bless an orchard to protect its crop, ward off evil spirits and promote growth. Although the practice originates in Southern England, it is celebrated in cider apple orchards globally.
This past weekend, Champlain Orchards revived the generations-old tradition in a shared celebration of the season. At the ceremony, attendees enjoyed a variety of food options and the Orchard’s traditional sweet mulled cider, a spin on the traditional Wassail drink. Guests explored the property, listened to live music by Bird Mountain String Band and gathered around a bonfire.
“It really is about bringing the community together to enjoy each other's company, to celebrate the harvest, and the season, and to enjoy some nice mulled cider and good food,” said Susan Van Put, a project manager at Champlain Orchards. “And just to be together. Our event is kind of playing off of the traditional Wassail Event, but keeping within the same spirit.”
A traditional Wassail ceremony features a Wassail King and Queen leading a procession from one apple orchard to another with villagers forming a circle around the largest apple tree to scare off evil spirits. In Champlain Orchard's unique interpretation, they hung donuts from the trees as offerings to the birds, which are thought to represent good spirits.
Van Put explained that Champlain Orchards had hosted a similar event in the past, but had not done so in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She noted that previous celebrations were smaller, and this year’s event aimed to attract a larger crowd.
“It has probably been a little bit of a simpler celebration, smaller gathering in the past, but this year we are hoping to bring out more people, so we have a live band, which we are really excited about… it is a great bluegrass band,” Van Put said.
This year, Champlain Orchards went all out.
“We don’t normally serve mulled cider here, but we will have that. We will have the Wassail version, which is based on our hard cider, and it has some mulling spices and some honey in it. We have a non-alcoholic version, which is based off of our Sweet Cider, which we sell year-round,” she said prior to the event.
The actual blessing took place at 5 p.m. near the bonfire, where attendees sang a song per the Wassail tradition in a non-denominational manner. Champlain Orchard owner and manager Bill Suhr presided over the event, while his wife and business partner Andrea Scott performed the blessing and led everyone in song.
Van Put also shared that their Farm Market would be open during the event, offering attendees the opportunity to purchase items on sale such as hard cider, apples, sweet cider, maple syrup and apple butter.
Van Put emphasized that at the end of the day, this traditional celebration was about community.
“We want to bring the community together to bring some good energy to the orchard in preparation for the growing season, which starts very soon.”
