Armed with cider, stale toast and noise makers, a group of Montezuma County residents chased off bad apple tree spirits last weekend in Mancos.
It was a rare moment to catch a wassailing party in Montezuma County - an ancient English tradition during which people visit cider producing orchards in England and recite incantations and sing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year.
Sara Miller and Daniel MacNeill hosted the party on Jan. 24 at Miller's heritage orchard near the mouth of Weber Canyon.
"It was so much fun," Miller said. "We plan to do it again next year."
Miller's apple trees are historic themselves. They are more than 100 years old, and Miller and MacNeill are working to restore the orchard, situated on 4 acres with about 250 trees. The orchard has about 22 varieties of apples, something that is very had to come by.
"We thought it would be neat to gather and bless the orchard," Miller said. "And then we started doing research and ran across wassailing."
With a little research, Miller and MacNeill learned that although it is an ancient practice, wassailing is still practiced today in England.
"It's about blessing the orchard for next year's harvest," Miller said.
About 20 to 30 people helped bless the Miller orchard. Two local teens were designated the king and queen, and quests dipped toast in cider, made from the orchard's harvest last year. Guests then made lots of noise and put the pieces of toast on the trees. Others poured cider around the base of the trees and made as much racket as possible.
"It was hilarious," Miller said.
Jude Schuenemeyer, owner of Let It Grow Nursery and founding member of the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project, was there with the crowd making noise.
While the event was fun, Schuenemeyer, was happy to see so many people in an orchard.
"It's a way of getting people together in an orchard," he said.
And maybe if more people get out in an orchard, then orchards will be on more people's minds. And orchards have been on the forefront of Schuenemeyer's mind ever since he set out to find all the heritage apples that put Montezuma County on the map hundreds of years ago.
"Sara's orchard is really spectacular," Schuenemeyer said.
Miller's orchard many have been one of the first planted in the area. It was planted before the trend was adopted to only plant Rome and Red Delicious apples caught on.
So Miller's orchard has some trees that Schuenemeyer believes are close to extinct.
"This is one of the most important orchards we have," Schuenemeyer said.
Schuenemeyer has busied himself grafting as many as Miller's trees as possible before they reach the end of their lifespan and has even sent some samples off to be DNA tested, because their identities are a pure mystery.
"We are in the process of grafting every apple tree in that orchard," he said.
The grove contains such rare varieties as the Chenango Strawberry Apple, Duchess of Oldenburg and the Maiden Blush.
And others that have Schuenemeyer stumped.
"One is small and round and almost purple, I have no idea what it is," Schuenemeyer said.
Schuenemeyer is waiting to get genetic research data from the USDA in Fort Collins.
Another, which they named Sara's Polkadot, is another mystery.
"No one has ever seen anything like it before," Schuenemeyer said.
As far as the 100-plus-year-old orchard, Miller says she has big plans for it.
And Schuenemeyer said getting people out there to make lots of noise doesn't hurt a thing.
"Getting someone out into the orchard is getting them out in the trees and making them aware of them; that is what really matters. They will notice if something needs to be pruned or irrigated or tended to," Schuenemeyer said.
"We have this phenomenal collection of trees and forget they exist," he said.
And as far as the toast?
"It will wind up being bird food, but they might take care of a few bugs while they are at it," Schuenemeyer said.
And as far as the mystery apples, Schuenemeyer said, he is awaiting results on the DNA tests, but doesn't know when that will be.
"We are anxiously waiting the results," he said.
And Miller is anxiously awaiting this year's harvest.
