Blessing for an Orchard

While my worship is largely concentrated on the Vanic gods, the one Aesir goddess who is very much the farmer’s friend is Idunn, the goddess of orcharding and apple-growing. While we cannot grow Idunn’s apples of immortality, we can grow many lovely old varieties that are more suitable for those who look to create their own nourishment than those who try to make maximum profit at the grocer’s. I challenge home orchardists everywhere to save and grow as many old varieties as they can. This genetic material may be invaluable someday, and in the meantime we get to taste apples that will never be found in a store.

Orchard fruits have many uses. There is the eating out of hand, of course, but there is also cider pressing — and many old cider varieties still survive to be grown. There is sauce and jelly, there is selling at the farmstand, and the most damaged fruits will happily be eaten by livestock. There is no reason to waste a bit of Idunn’s bounty.

Hail Idunn for your gift,

For trees that bear the autumn fruit

That bears us through the winter’s cold.

Bless my trees heavy with sweetness,

Bless my fruits round and perfect,

Bless the imperfect that makes the cider

That we may drink and praise your name.

Artwork by NessieValkyria