Happy Solstice!
Today is the official “shortest day” of the year. The sun clocked in late (08:30), hovered lazily over the hills for a few hours, and has already decided to clock off (15:30) before you’ve even thought about what to have for your tea! Just 7 hours of daylight and a whole 17 hours of cold darkness… great for owls, burglars, and, of course, goths.
While most of us are huddled indoors trying to remember where we put the big woolly socks, the orchards that make our cider are having a very different experience. To the casual observer, a Highland apple orchard in December looks like a collection of spooky, skeletal sticks shivering in the frost.
But if you look closer (and perhaps squint a bit over the rim of your glass), you’ll find a deeper connection between this long, dark night and the golden pint in your hand.
Here is why today is actually one of the most important on the apple calendar.
1. The Great Nap (Scientific Term: Dormancy)
Apple trees are relatable. Like many of us in winter, when the weather turns dreich, they simply refuse to function.
The Solstice marks the deepest point of the tree’s “beauty sleep.” Apple trees don’t just tolerate our famously cold weather; they are addicted to it. They require “chill hours” to reset their internal clocks. If they don’t get enough freezing cold misery, they wake up grumpy in the spring and won’t produce any blossom.
So, on this longest night, the trees aren’t shivering; they are having the best nap of their lives. They are gathering strength in the dark so they can deal with all the May shenanigans.
2. The Aggressive Haircut (Pruning)
The Solstice is the starting gun for the pruning saws. Because the trees are essentially in a coma, they don’t mind that we come at them with sharp objects.
Winter pruning is high-stakes sculpting. We look at a tangled mess of branches and think, “I can fix that.” By cutting away the “suckers” (unproductive branches that just leech energy—we all know one), we ensure that when the sun finally decides to return, the tree directs its energy to the good stuff: the apples.
It is an act of optimism. We are standing in freezing mud, cutting perfectly good wood off a tree, trusting that in six months, the sun will actually show up to finish the job.
3. The Calm Before The Noise
You might be wondering if we plan to just leave the trees to their sleep. Not a chance.
There is an ancient, noisy and boozy tradition called Wassailing that is specifically designed to wake the orchard up for the new year. It involves cider, shouting, superstition, toast and fire in the darkness.
But we aren’t quite ready to disturb their slumber just yet. We’ll be dedicating a whole post to our unique take on the art of yelling at trees very soon—so keep an eye on this space. For tonight, we let them sleep.
4. Liquid Sunshine
Finally, the Solstice is the perfect time to consume the orchard’s ghost: Cider.
When you crack open one of our ciders on the longest night, you are drinking a time capsule. You are consuming the sunshine of last summer, preserved in amber liquid, specifically designed to help you survive the gloom of this December. It is the circle of life, delivered in a glass.
So, tonight, raise a glass to the skeletal trees outside. They aren’t dead; they’re just resting their eyes.
Slàinte mhath!
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