I can’t quite remember which book it was—I’m fairly sure it was by Hemingway—but there’s a passage about the fishermen of Galicia that has always stuck with me.
The gist of it was that while the rest of the world was tearing around on factory time, watching the clock and worrying about schedules, these folk were living in a different world altogether. Their rhythm was dictated by the tides, the light, and the moon.
They didn’t ignore the modern world because they were backwards. They ignored it because the fish didn’t own watches (where would they even wear them?)
Truth be told, that’s pretty much the way of it here at the cidery.
We’re living in a world that is tied to the Gregorian calendar. We’re told that January 1st is the “Start,” that Q1 is for hitting targets, and that Monday morning is when the real work begins.
But apple trees don’t have calendars. And the wild yeast sleeping in our barrels? they’ve never heard of “February.”
Nature Doesn’t Do Straight Lines
The modern calendar is little more than a grid. It cuts time into neat boxes so the trains run on time and the tax man stays happy. But nature—and certainly cider—operates in circles.
Out here among the trees on the Black Isle, the “month” feels a bit like an administrative invention. The Lunar Month (29.5 days) feels like the truth. It tracks the energy building up and fading away. It mimics the sap in the trees and the liquid in our tanks.
When you work with wild fermentation, you soon stop looking at dates and start looking for signs.
The Winter Paradox
We all feel this instinctively, by the way.
Think about that clear, biting morning in late October or November. You step out the door, the grass is white, and you hear the crunch under your boots. You pull your collar up and say: “Well, that’s the first frost of the year.”
Now, technically, that’s not right is it? It almost certainly frosted back in January or February. But in your head, those months belong to last winter. The calendar year might run January to December, but the real year runs from green to brown, from warmth to cold, and back to life again.
We know, deep down, that the cycle doesn’t reset just because the date changed to the 1st of January.
The “Real” New Year
This is why Imbolc (St Brigid’s Day) matters far more to the cidery than New Year’s Day.
Traditionally, today marks the first day of spring—the “First Stirrings.” But even this date is just a guide.
Imbolc is meant to be the exact halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. But if you actually look at the sun, that midpoint often doesn’t hit for another couple of days.
Even when we try to pin nature down to a specific date, it takes its own time. It arrives when it’s ready.
The Pause
Right now, the cidery is quiet. To an outsider, it probably looks like nothing is happening. The trees are bare and the barrels are still.
According to the calendar, we should be rushing. According to the orchard, we are simply in the Pause. We’re in that quiet space between the years—waiting for the sun to hit the angle that wakes the yeast up.
So, if you’re struggling to find that “New Year” energy in the dark of winter, don’t worry yourself. You aren’t lazy. You’re just living by the orchard clock.
There’s no need to force a beginning while the earth is still resting. Like the trees, we’re just waiting for the signal.
The real year starts when the light says it does.
Slàinte.
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