Apple Howling

Have you ever been apple howling?

Once upon a time it was a widely-held tradition, especially in the British Isles. It also happened here in the US.

What was apple howling, you might ask? It's certainly not self-explanatory. Apple howling usually took place on Twelfth Night, although in some places it also occurred on Christmas Eve, and in still others apple howling occurred on January 17th, Old Twelfth Night if Old Christmas (January 6th) was observed. It's rather like wassailing, except that instead of going to homes to sing for treats, the people went out to orchards and sang to the trees.

Here is a rough description of the apple-howling evening: a batch of warm mulled cider was prepared. After drinking a goodly amount, people would take the rest out to the orchard and pour it around the roots of the apple tree. The practice often included rhymes like:

Here's to you, good apple tree!
Long may you bear hats-full,
pockets-full,
bushel baskets-full!

or:

Stand fast root, bear well top.
Pray bring us a howling good crop!
Every twig, apples big!
Every bough, apples enow!

In some regions boys would go out with sticks or whips and whip the trees while also berating them with yells and insults.

In still other areas shotguns would be brought to the orchard and powder (no shot would be loaded) would be fired into the trees while people threatened and beseeched the trees to bear well in the coming year. Sometimes two cakes were baked with a dried pea in the batter of each. One cake was for men, the other for women, and whoever got the pea would be crowned the King or the Queen of the evening.

When we wassailed our trees in 2009--looking for the pea in the cake.

You can see an apple-howling in progress here:

and here is another. Both you will notice, include Morris dancers.

You might wonder why apples were so important that people went to all this trouble to encourage the trees to bear. But when you think about it, it's no mystery. Apples played a large role in early subsistence farmsteads. Apples could be eaten raw, fried, boiled, baked, made into sauce or apple butter. They could be dried for later use or used to make pies, cakes and other desserts. Cider was a staple drink in most homes, and could be kept for months if properly stored, or turned into vinegar, which was vital to the preservation of many foods. And of course, hard cider provided many a merry evening for those who imbibed!

This year, our apple blossoms were frosted, and we had no apples. Zilch. Not one. We rely on our apples almost as much as those early people did. We make applesauce, apple butter, and apple cider. We make pie filling to freeze and sometimes spiced apple preserves. The thought of a whole year without any of these foods was appalling. Usually we have at least some apples, but this year, we were empty-handed.

So we had to buy apples to make applesauce, and let me tell you, it is nowhere as good as the sauce from our own trees. We bought cider too, when the local store had it on sale for $1.50 a gallon. I processed it in quart jars so now we have about 20 quarts of cider to last us at least a little while. We made no apple butter, a sore disappointment because this is always a family event.

A few years back we tried wassailing our trees--and that year the trees all froze so we had no apples then either! Should we try it again this year? I think we will. Maybe we didn't say the rhymes correctly, or didn't pour on enough cider. Even if it doesn't work, it would be fun to do it again.

Our apple tree wassailing, 2009

Funny--James and Michaela are now in high school and driving! How time flies.

So, do you think you might give it a try? Let me know if you do!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.