The Food Programme: Wassail! Wassail! A celebration of cider, orchards and song

Dan Saladino goes in search of the history, meaning and spirit of wassails and cider. In Somerset he takes part in a village wassail sung door to door and one sung in an orchard.

Contributors:

The Drayton village wassailers.

Gerard Tucker, wassail master of ceremonies.

Nell Leyshon (novelist and dramatist, play: Folk).

James Crowden, author, Cider Country: How an Ancient Craft Became a Way of Life.

Music:

Drayton Wassail (as documented by Cecil Sharp in 1903)

Tam Lin, Fairport Convention (1968)

Bruton Town, Pentangle (1968)

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.