How to hold a Wassail
Singing to apple trees to encourage a bountiful harvest is making a comeback. Look out for a wassail in an orchard or allotment near you
For many of us, Twelfth Night signifies little more than the deadline for taking down the Christmas decorations. For others, however, it’s an occasion to pull on the wellies, head out into the cold and wake the fruit trees from their winter slumber through songs, offerings and some cider-fuelled revelry. In orchards and allotments across the country, the ancient tradition of wassailing is making an unexpected comeback.
Hold your own wassail
Traditionally, the wassail takes place on Twelfth Night – either 5, 6 or 17* January, but modern versions can take place at any point between these dates.
A back garden can work just as well as an orchard.
Torches, wellies and warm coats are a must.
Involve the kids. Deck them out with face paint, feathers and foliage and they can lead the parade as the wassail King or Queen.
Ensure there’s a generous supply of mulled cider as well as juice for little ones, and encourage participants to bring snacks, such as home-baked apple muffins, to share with the group.
Drive out evil spirits by banging pots and pans together before serenading the tree with a wassail song.
* 17 January is Twelfth Night, or ‘Old Twelvey’, following the pre-Gregorian calendar.
More on Wassails in the January issue - turn to page 116.
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How to embrace change
Change happens to us all, it’s how we deal with it that matters
- Set reasonable expectations and you’ll be better able to manage change and cope with disappointment.
- Instead of resisting, allow change to unfold and try to understand what’s transforming and why.
- Notice the change in nature and how it can be a wonderful thing.
- Learn to live with uncertainty. It’s necessary sometimes, if you want to move forward.
- Remember that when you accept and learn from change, you inevitably grow stronger.
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Nest | Soak in a spruce needle bath
Don’t throw away your Christmas tree clippings. Spruce needles are an invigorating natural remedy, great for clearing the head. If you feel a cold coming on or are simply exhausted, have a bath with this spruce tree essence and let the scent of a forest work its magic
You will need:
3 fresh twigs from a spruce tree, washed
1 litre water
1 Cut the spruce twigs into small pieces, place them in a saucepan and add the water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
2 Now remove the pan from the heat, cover with a cloth, and let the solution of twigs infuse for another 10 minutes while you run your bath.
3 Strain and add the solution to your bath. Relax in the bath for 20 minutes, breathing in deeply and taking in all the wonderful forest scents.
4 Go to bed immediately and rest!
From Vinegar Socks, Traditional Home Remedies for Modern Living by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer
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A could-do list for January
Things you might want to do this month (no pressure!)
- Have a digi-break from 8pm onwards
- Give somebody you love a big hug
- Make looking after yourself your number one resolution
- Spend all day in your pyjamas
- Try cooking with a new ingredient each week
- Relish the time to ponder new beginnings
What would you add? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter.
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Recipe | Bay and lemon wrapped salmon
Fish baked with lemon and bay makes a simple supper
Use bay to protect delicate salmon from the heat of the oven, and to infuse it with its fragrant notes.
Serves 2
2 salmon steaks
2 bay leaves
1–2 lemons, thinly sliced (you’ll need 8 slices)
Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/ 400F. Lay each piece of salmon on a piece of baking parchment, around 25cm square. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then lay on bay leaves and lemon slices alternately and drizzle with a little olive oil. Fold the paper around each piece of fish and tie with string, then place on a baking tray and bake for 25 mins. Serve hot alongside a salad or with salad potatoes and green veg.
Turn to page 37 of January's The Simple Things for more bay recipes.
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Dry but not dull alternatives to alcohol
There was a time when, if you went out with a group of friends and turned down an alcoholic drink, people would assume you were either pregnant, driving or just weird. Nowadays there are likely to be at least a couple of people not drinking, maybe for that night or week, or just as long as they feel like it. On page 44 of January's The Simple Things we share the secrets of going dry.
If you're after a dry but not dull alternative to booze, try one of these ideas:
Seedlip
The first alcohol-free spirit comes in two flavours – spice (wintry and smoky), and garden (savoury and herby). Drink with tonic or in a cocktail. From Ocado and Tesco.
Kombucha is fermented tea in a slightly tart sparkling drink a bit like cider. Real Kombucha contains only natural ingredients and no added sugar; realkombucha.co.uk.
Crodino Bitter
Aperitif from the company behind Campari, great for making an alcohol-free Apérol Spritz.
Big Drop makes a stout, pale and spiced ales, with no artificial extraction methods used. bigdropbrew.com.
Lager lovers should try Heineken 0.0, Estrella Damm Free and Big Drop Nix Lager.
Cold-brew and nitro-coffee are big trends for this year. They are brewed cold to create a sweeter, less bitter taste and the latter is infused with nitrogen to create a silky coffee with a foamy head.
Try drydrinker.com for more ideas. They can also create taster packs.
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Wish | January cover reveal
When you wish upon a star, it’s more out of hope than belief. And the new year is just the time for this kind of optimism. The crisp pages of a new journal are the place for a could-do list or the beginnings of a project. But acknowledge the darkness and still-short days too. Midwinter is also a time for thinking and reflecting, for sleeping deeply, rather than doing and achieving. Feed your body and your mind now as nourishment to see you through to spring. Daydream in a cosy corner and the world will seem a warmer place.
Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
View the sampler here, buy back issues or try our sister mag, Oh Comely
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Journal sparks
Longitudinal journal challenge
‘Longitudinal’ means you will make it a habit to look at the same thing every so often over a long time. The key is to find something that changes in some way – whether very gradually, daily, or weekly. You don’t have to track it every
day or even particularly regularly. Just be sure to continue to observe it, and try to remember to record your observations in the same journal or section of a journal. This way you can see how the thing is changing and how your observations evolve.
Things you could observe:
A tree
Your desk
Someone’s shoes
A lake or river
A chalkboard
A bookshelf
A storefront window
A garden
A street bench
The dinner table
The sky at night
An anthill
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Growing old is inevitable but growing up is optional
Photography: Ali Allen
Seasonal tonic
Make a batch of these immune-boosting shots to prevent a cold from ruining your Christmas
Opt for fresh, organic produce to maximise benefits – and if one ingredient is unavailable, just double up one of the others.
Makes 6 x 50ml shots
2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp chopped onion
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp grated horseradish root
2 tbsp chopped cayenne pepper (or any other chilli)
350ml raw apple cider vinegar
1 Pile the garlic, onion, ginger, horseradish and pepper into a 350ml lidded sterilised jar. (To sterilise, wash it in hot soapy water, dry with a clean cloth, then place in a 200C/Fan 180C/ 400F oven for 10 mins.)
Fill the jar with raw apple cider vinegar, close the lid tightly and shake.
2 Store in a cool, dark place, shaking at least once a day for two weeks.
3 Filter the tonic through a clean piece of muslin, pour into a sterilised bottle. Take a 50ml shot three times a day (on an empty stomach) as soon as you feel the symptoms of a cold. It will keep at room temperature for up to six months.
Recipe from Tonics & Teas by Rachel de Thample (Kyle Books)
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Travel | The other Algarve
Explore the quiet side of south-west Portugal with Inntravel
The Algarve’s more obvious attractions are well known: sun, sea and sandcastles, villas with pools and water parks galore. And while there’s nothing wrong with these, Inntravel, the Slow Holiday people, take a different approach to this beguiling corner of southwesternmost Europe. They get well off the beaten track, and use footpaths – and some wonderful places to stay – to help you discover some of Portugal’s lesser-spotted delights.
COAST OF MANY COLOURS
Inntravel are the UK’s leading provider of self-guided walking holidays. Their hotel-to-hotel route, A Coast of Many Colours, takes you across the Algarve - from its honeyed, southern coast through an agricultural heartland to the wilder, western shores - and is one of the most enticing in their entire collection.
A world away from the region’s busy resorts, you can discover for yourself the unspoiled landscapes of the Costa Vicentina Natural Park, characterised by dramatic cliffs, pristine coves and quiet, rolling pastures. The colours are many and varied: long stretches of golden sand give way to grey-and-red jagged rocks before softening to a paler orange and rose as the coastal edge turns northwards.
Inland, the green hills are home to drifts of winter blossom, plantations of quince and oranges, and flower meadows carpeted with citrus-yellow Bermuda buttercups. It all feels delightfully remote.
FROM RUINS TO RETREAT
When he first set eyes on the village of Aldeia da Pedralva, visionary developer António Ferreira saw past the deserted houses, decaying walls and neglected streets... “I discovered Aldeia da Pedralva when I was looking for a holiday house. I worked in advertising, which was very stressful. I felt tired and my health wasn’t brilliant, so I thought that renovating a holiday home would be a good project to distract me. A colleague told me to go and see Aldeia da Pedralva, an oldrural village in ruins, where he had already bought a house to rebuild.
“I went there with my wife and we instantly fell in love with the place, so much so that we actually bought three houses. It made me look at the village from a different perspective and made me realise that there must be other workaholic people like me who need to disconnect from the real world. Pedralva (pictured above) was the perfect place to make this happen – a tourist project based around nature, detoxing – and surfing. Pedralva lies in the ‘other’ Algarve, part of a Natural Park with amazing wildlife, landscapes and wild beaches. It’s a place where you really feel that time has stopped.”
Today, António’s dream has become a reality, though it remains fundamentally a traditional place at heart – the houses are simply furnished in keeping with the spirit of the original village. Thanks to the vision, passion and tireless work of one man, Aldeia da Pedralva is alive once more...
SEE FOR YOURSELF...
Choose Inntravel’s walking holiday, A Coast of Many Colours (including a night in Pedralva), to discover the Algarve’s ‘quiet side’. From £670pp, inc 7 nights’ B&B,
4 dinners, 3 picnics & detailed route notes. Until 31 May 2018. Visit inntravel.co.uk or call 01653 617000; visitalgarve.pt.
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Illustration: Holly Walsh
Christmas hacks | Style up shop-bought stuffing
Style up shop-bought stuffing for an extra special side dish this Christmas
1. Heat a couple of tablespoons olive oil in a frying pan.
2. Add a chopped onion and stir until softened.
3. Add stock and bring to the boil (you’ll need roughly three-quarters stock to stuffing mix quantity).
4. Take off heat and add to stuffing mix.
5. Stir in a few tablespoons of herbs of your choice, such as parsley or rosemary.
6. Spoon out the mixture into a shallow tin and cook for 20 mins with foil on, and another 10 without it.
The December issue features a cracker of a Miscellany Christmas special (page 99), packed with puzzles, games, stocking fillers, bad jokes, amazing facts and forgotten wisdom, including:
Mix a great martini
Secret Santa gifts
Make sweet frumenty
Christmas i-spy
How to carve turkey
Fizzy amaretto sours
Make invisible ink
Froebel stars
Wrapping awkward gifts
Beat the family at games
The Simple Things’ sprouts & crackers board game
Identifier: Bestseller toys
Bah humbug word search
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Sponsored | Christmas cocktail recipe ideas
The weekend before Christmas is classic party season. If you're hosting friends over Christmas and New Year, stock up the drinks trolley and get those cocktail shakers pumping. Try one of these recipes to really get your party going with a bang.
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Christmas | How to be grateful
Being grateful is about more than the occasional thanks. It’s an attitude that helps you feel contented in even the most challenging of times
As gratitude has become more mainstream, the ways to practise it have become more varied. Writing down gratitudes is crucial, as the act of putting pen to paper fixes the gratitude more firmly in your long-term memory rather than simply thinking or saying it, and regular practice is where the benefits lie.
TOOLS FOR THE JOB
Write in a journal
If you like any excuse for new stationery there are a several gratitude journals. Try the Year Long Gratitude Journal (thegreengables.co.uk), The Daily Greatness Journal (dailygreatness.co.uk), a planner that helps you to organise your entire life and features gratitude prompts. Or Be Great Be Grateful, by Anna Murray and Grace Winteringham of design studio, Patternity, is a journal which encourages you to see the unseen in everyday life.
Send a letter
Robert Emmons found that writing letters expressing how thankful you are had a strong positive impact not only on the writer but also the person receiving the letter.
The Personalised Letters of Gratitude to Mum envelope book (andsotheymade.co.uk) makes a great gift. Little Notes of Gratitude Notecard Set (wearebreadandjam.co.uk) contains appreciative messages as well as space to add your own.
Do it digitally
What’s Good is a daily gratitude app that tracks your happiness over time and has a calming breath animation. Then there’s the Happijar app, a virtual jar where you store happy memories, ready to shake up, tip out and revisit on your phone, whenever you need a lift.
Take a snap
If writing it down doesn’t appeal, take pictures of things you’re grateful for. If you’d like to share, there are several gratitude hashtags #capturinggratitude #thisjoyfulmoment, #thehappynow and #savouringhappiness.
Turn to page 86 of December's The Simple Things for more on why saying thank you matters.
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Christmas | Give a little back
Charitable acts at Christmas not only help people but make you appreciate what you have
Beth Johnson has been involved with the charity Cry in the Dark (cryinthedark.org) for 13 years,
and is about to make her seventh Christmas trip to Romania to distribute 1,500 gift-filled shoe boxes collected over the past three months.
“To me, this is what Christmas is all about,” says Beth. “We take 18 volunteers and distribute the boxes personally to the children. To be around people who see the value in the gifts they’re receiving is quite incredible.”
Volunteer opportunities for the trip to Romania in 2018 will be allocated in January, and there are other initiatives throughout the year.
It might be too late to send a Christmas box abroad this year but there’s plenty you can do here. The homeless charity Crisis (crisis.org.uk) relies on volunteers to cook and serve meals, share skills or simply to spend time with guests over the festive period.
FareShare is having its annual Christmas food collection in Tesco stores from 30 November to 2 December (fareshare.org.uk), and don’t forget to donate to your local food bank this month and in January, when stocks run thin as people are feeling more frugal.
Get the kids involved by making a reverse Advent calendar: every day starting on 1 December, put
a nice food product in a box, then deliver the hamper of goodies to your local food bank on Christmas Eve (visit trusselltrust.org to find your nearest).
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Illustration: Holly Walsh
Christmas | How to make a great martini
Glamour distilled. Best served with the inevitable Bond on the telly
1 Add a measure of dry vermouth into a martini glass, swooshing it around so the glass is coated. Then pour into a cocktail shaker, swirl before chucking out anything remaining.
2 Add a measure of gin into the shaker along with a couple of ice cubes.
3 Shake gently, before popping it into the freezer.
4 Prep your glass, by wiping the rim with lemon zest. Then it goes in the freezer too.
5 Patiently wait for 30 minutes, then strain into a glass.
6 Garnish with an olive.
The December issue features a cracker of a Miscellany Christmas special (page 99), packed with puzzles, games, stocking fillers, bad jokes, amazing facts and forgotten wisdom, including:
Mix a great martini
Secret Santa gifts
Make sweet frumenty
Christmas i-spy
How to carve turkey
Fizzy amaretto sours
Make invisible ink
Froebel stars
Wrapping awkward gifts
Beat the family at games
The Simple Things’ sprouts & crackers board game
Identifier: Bestseller toys
Bah humbug word search
More from the December issue:
Featured
More Christmas drinks:
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Competition | Win meat boxes for a year with Coombe Farm Organic
WE’VE TEAMED UP WITH COOMBE FARM ORGANIC TO OFFER ONE LUCKY READER MONTHLY DELIVERIES OF ORGANIC MEAT AND MORE
Enter our competition for your chance to win a year’s worth of organic meat. The winner will receive one delivery a month for 12 months, on the day of their choosing, of award-winning organic goodies – a great prize, worth more than £400.
How to enter
For a chance to win a year’s supply of organic meat, enter below before the closing date of 11.59pm on 14 February 2018. The winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries after this date and notified soon afterwards. The prize is a monthly delivery of Coombe Farm Organic goodies for 12 months.
You can’t swap it for cash but you can choose the day for delivery.
Find out more at coombefarmorganic.co.uk
Find full terms and conditions on page 129 of the January issue and at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.
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Listen | Stormy weather songs
Hold onto your headphones, there’s a storm acomin’.
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Three of the best modern carols
Hark the herald angels (and all the rest of us) sing. As we tra-la-la-la-la our way through the season, we take a look at the stories behind our favourite carols
ARVO PÄRT: ‘BOGORÓDITSE DJÉVO’
With his native Estonia folded into the Soviet Union, it took a 1981 move to Berlin for the world’s most performed living composer to freely express his Christianity. This beauteous choral piece, drawing deeply on his love of medieval music and Gregorian chant, was commissioned in 1990 by King’s College Choir, Cambridge.
JOHN TAVENER: ‘EX MARIA VIRGINE’
A gift for good friend Charles’ wedding to Camilla in 2005, the man once signed to The Beatles’ Apple label references everything from ancient Islamic text to ‘Ding Dong Merrily On High’ in his altogether heavenly, typically universalist Christmas-themed song cycle.
BOB CHILCOTT: ‘THE SHEPHERD’S CAROL’
A singer with King’s College Choir as man and boy, in 2000 Chilcott was commissioned to write a piece for their annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and offered up this sublime evocation of nativity. No less an arbiter than ‘Mr Christmas’ himself, composer John Rutter, reckons it “the most beautiful modern carol there is”.
Turn to page 92 of December's The Simple Things for more on the stories behind our favourite carols
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