Em Sibley, the “wassail queen,” after successfully completing the ceremony at Sheppy’s farm in Bradford-on-Tone, England (New York TImes).

From the New York TImes (February 13, 2025)

A jet of steam rises with a hiss as a red hot poker plunges into a bowl of cider. A garlanded woman spears a piece of toast with a long fork and lodges the offering among the branches of a tree. Then, amid shouts from the watching crowd, the torch-lit ceremony ends with gunfire ringing out beneath the clear night winter sky.

For most of the year, Sheppy’s farm at Bradford-on-Tone in the west of England uses state of the art machinery to tend its 22,000 apple trees and produce more than half a million gallons of cider annually.

Read the whole thing.