Photograph from Wassail Celebration 2024 by Landon Speers.

On Sunday, January 26, we'll have our annual Wassail Celebration, a highlight of the season. Hosted by Dan Pucci and Madeleine Osborn, the event will begin at 12 pm with workshops and activities leading up to the main event. The workshops will be for making crowns from foraged materials, torches to carry during the ceremony, and noisemakers to use in the orchard to scare spirits away—no advance registration is necessary for the workshops, just show up with time to participate!

At 4:15 pm, we’ll gather to walk into the orchard, where an interactive ceremony will take place.

Wassailing is an old English practice with pagan and Norse roots that involves celebrating the last year’s apple harvest and anointing the trees with cider to encourage a prosperous harvest for the following season. Wassail celebrations typically involve music, recitations, and noise-making in an orchard, all with the goal of awakening the apple trees and scaring away spirits that might blight the crop. Bread is hung on tree branches and the roots are anointed with cider. The wassailing group sings, hollers, and bangs on pots and pans. Troublesome spirits cannot tolerate such a racket. The Wassail celebration at Rose Hill Farm will borrow from some of these customs and introduce a few new ones as well. All wassailers welcome—prepare to make noise and to make merry!

General admission is free. Food by Misto will be available for purchase from 1 to 7 pm!

The farm and taproom will be open from 12 to 8 pm.

Read more about our Wassail Celebration in this recent article for Bon Appétit by Amiel Stanek, featuring photographs by Landon Speers from our 2024 event.

Photographs from Wassail Celebration 2024 by Landon Speers.