A UNIQUE farm in a County Durham village, which dates back to the Middle Ages, is marking the new year by reviving an ancient English tradition.
Dalton Moor Farm, at Dalton-Le-Dale, Seaham is a renowned vegan fruit farm and home to a School of Sustainable Living and Wellbeing, with a year-round programme of activities designed to celebrate the natural environment.
And on 18 January its orchards will be the focus of an event which dates back centuries.
Visitors from across the region and beyond will gather to wassail the orchards; an ancient practice designed to awaken the trees from their winter slumber, welcome good spirits and scare away evil ones.
Wearing crowns made from evergreen foliage, the wassailers will parade through the orchard, singing, dancing and drumming to ward off evil spirits and waking the sleeping apple tree spirits to get ready for spring.
Participants will be able to make crowns, join in the music making and then take part in the toast, with some hot wassail punch.
The orchard is a key feature of the farm – itself at least 400-years-old – which owner Jenny Connor has turned into a multi-award-winning centre of sustainable practice with environmental regeneration and celebration at its heart.
And the apples it produces – along with other cultivated and foraged fruits and herbs from the farm’s pasture and woodland – are used by Jenny to make a range of delicious and unusual vegan drinks and preserves.
“Everything we do at the farm always has to have the emphasis on sustainability and upholding special traditions,” said Jenny.
“And so it is lovely to be starting the year with a celebration many people may never have experienced before and which I am sure they will thoroughly enjoy.”
The wassailing of the orchards also coincides with the appearance of the Wolf Moon; the first full moon of the year, “which makes it particularly special,” said Jenny.
The Wolf Moon will be at its fullest in the UK on 13 January and takes its name from wolves – once widespread in Britain – which would howl as they searched for food in the depth of winter.
The wassailing event takes place between 2pm and 5pm and tickets, which cost £30 for adults and £15 for children, can be booked at www.daltonmoorfarm.co.uk