Finding Lost Fruit is my ongoing project on the heritage of cider and orchards in Britain, examining the interactions of agricultural heritage and environmental conservation in the contemporary development of the British countryside. Find here blog posts related to my UK research and fieldwork, as well as the manuscript for my dissertation, which is currently being revised for publication as a book.
Finding Lost Fruit: The Cider Poetic, Orchard Conservation, and Craft Cider Making in Britain.
Indiana University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. 10640255.
Wassail: A How-To For New Traditions
Occasionally people ask me a question like this, “I’d like to do a Wassail. How should I do it? How I can make it relevant to our place?” This year, a friend in the cider world in New York posed this question to me again, and I wanted to share my response for anyone else…
“The Architecture of Orchards” in Malus
I’m very excited to have my article, “The Architecture of Orchards” in Issue 14 of Malus, a mighty little publication spreading ideas within the cider industry. You can read my article here. It is available on my publications page as well. I’m especially delighted to see my article in print right next to one by…
Dorothy Hartley: Verjuice
I’ve been reading Lost World: England 1933-1936, a collection of essays by Dorothy Hartley, originally written for the Daily Sketch Newspaper. Dorothy was an eccentric, a wanderer, and a writer, whose prose style was that of a novelist or perhaps a literary naturalist, but (thankfully) not the dry analysis of an anthropologist. Lucy Worsley, in…
Pheasants and Pear Trees
The end of January is the close of pheasant season in England. The Beater’s Shoot marks the day at the end of the season when the paying guns are done, and the beaters take guns in hand. At this point in the season, one takes aim at the wily fowl who have managed to survive…
Cheese Meditation Minute
I was drinking a cider and admiring a cheese. And then I had some cheese thoughts that my friends seemed to enjoy. Following this, I decided that the cider blog should definitely have a Cheese Meditation Minute every so often. Because really, what is cider without a good cheese? The men of Compost Heap know…
Mistletoe
During my research in England, I wrote some fieldnote observations (reposted below) about my encounters with mistletoe, and I recently got to revisit them in a conversation with Annie Corrigan on WFIU Radio’s Earth Eats Program. If you are interested in further information on mistletoe, please visit pages by Jonathan Briggs, whose work has brought…
Elderflower Detour
June in Indiana is the time to gather Elderflowers, though almost no one does, except me. Some folks here are familiar with the elderberry as an edible fruit for pies or cordials, but floral tastes are not something that seem to be part of the culinary canon here in the midwest. I certainly had…
Wassail: An Unexpected Revival
I was sitting in a pub in East Hackney, London one January night a few years ago trying to convince a young man from Portsmouth that English people did in fact practice the custom of wassail. “Wassail?” he said. “I’ve never heard of that. English people don’t do that. I don’t believe you.” I parried…
Wassail: Some Historical Reports and their Contexts
Have you been dying for some historical sources for the custom of wassail? Come on, I know you have. Lucky for you I am the folklorist with the super folklore library collection a mere 30 minute walk from my doorstep. So I made my way over to the stacks at the Wells Library at Indiana…
Wassail on Twice Cooked
I’ve written a guest post on Wassail for my friend Adam Zolkover’s great blog Twice Cooked: Cooking, Eating, Politics. Follow the link below and enjoy:http://www.twice-cooked.com/2014/01/14/cider-time-wassail/
The Levels
It’s November, and we’ve had our first snow here in Indiana. After the immersive and intensive dive into NY Cider Week, it’s been nice let my mind drift back to England as I spend time transcribing more interviews. Somehow, I can’t seem to get the Somerset Levels out of my mind. Maybe it’s the slant…
Perry in Austria – Courtesy Bill Bradshaw
If you don’t already read Bill Bradshaw’s great cider blog, take a look at this description of his trip to the perry producing region in Austria. http://iamcider.blogspot.com/2013/10/die-mostviertal-perry-in-lower-austria.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IamciderOnTheIncide+%28IAMCIDER%3A+On+The+Incide%29
The 17th Century is the Best Century
Back at my desk in Indiana, I have been reading and taking notes on a really lovely chapter in a book called A Pleasing Sinne: Drink and Conviviality in Seventeenth-century England. The chapter “Drinking Cider in Paradise: Science, Improvement, and the Politics of Fruit Trees”, by Dr. Vittoria Di Palma, has lots to offer the…
Rare Variety Cider Tasting with John Teiser
Possibly one of the most interesting, lovely, and helpful people I have met during my cider travels has been the incomparable John Teiser, producer of Springherne Cider. John introduced me to Broome Farm and has helped in many ways to set me on the path of cider and perry. John is one of the true…
Back at the Broome
I have returned to Broome Farm for a visit about six months after my departure, and it’s almost like I never left. So lovely to slip right back into drinking some amazing cider outside the cellar with the regulars at the end of the workday. Folks report that, though the apple crop is not a…
Cider With Maria 