Latest News: 'WAIT TILL YOU TASTE ONE, DEARIE!'

'WAIT TILL YOU TASTE ONE, DEARIE!'



In myth and legend apples have long been a source of wonderment, imbued with magical powers, granting eternal life, or like Jazz enchanting those who ate them. Here are a few magical apple facts -

• In British folklore apples were often associated with witchcraft. The fruit was believed to be one of a witch’s favourite ways of casting spells, a la Snow White. Apples with red on one side and green on the other were supposed to be particularly potent. A spell could be whispered on one side of the apple and when the victim ate the other half they would be spellbound.

• In 1657 at the height of Europe’s witch hunting craze, a 12 year old boy Richard Jones in Shepton Mallet, Somerset was reportedly bewitched by an apple from a girl, Jane Brooks. The boy was seen to suffer demonic fits and flew over his garden wall. In return for her generosity the poor girl was convicted of witchcraft and hanged!

• If you cut an apple in half horizontally the seeds exposed resemble a witch’s pentacle, the five cornered star used by sorcerers. Young women in Ye Olde England believed that if you did this then ate the apple in the light of a candle you would catch a glimpse of your future husband over your shoulder.

• In Irish tradition if a woman can peel an apple in one continuous ribbon and then throw it over her shoulder, the peel will fall in the shape of her future husband’s initials!