Apple wassailing is an ancient orchard-honoring community tradition in which we gather to share cider and sing incantations to the trees in order to welcome a good crop this season. Join us at *your* downtown Santa Cruz Community Orchard at 12pm for a winter pruning and orchard maintenance workshop, or later at 2pm to join our first ever apple wassail!

Location: The Santa Cruz Community Orchard has plantings at both Riverside Gardens Park (262 San Lorenzo Blvd) and across the street at Mike Fox Park (225 San Lorenzo Blvd). Both segments of today’s event will begin among our oldest trees at the Riverside Gardens site, but if you don’t find us there when you show up, check the orchard at Mike Fox Park.

12pm Noon: Learn the fundamentals of winter orchard maintenance as we continue to prune and train our young fruit trees for healthy and productive form, initiate topwork grafting, build soil fertility and companion plantings, and maintain our orchard.

2pm: Join us for our first ever, ancient English-style apple wassailing ceremony, in which we share cider, hang ribbons, laugh among friends old and new, and sing traditional incantations to the trees to bring a strong harvest in the coming season. Try to come on time, as the wassail will move quickly, led by our masterful Wassail King Blaize Wilkinson. Our 2015 planting at Riverside Gardens Park is looking very robust now, and could give its very first notable harvest this summer and fall, so come be a part of that!

This is a free event, and all are warmly invited. You are welcome to bring festive snacks to share, and/or monetary donations to support the maintenance of the Santa Cruz Community Orchard.

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