FORBIDDEN
Rebecca Evans On my second night in Weymouth in 1991, I arrived at The Sailors Return around six and scanned the room, waiting to meet the man of my dreams, Ray. I went to the loo, fixed my lips, re-lined my eyes, and repaired my mascara. My heavy sweater draped mid-thigh, covering leggings. My hair, tight with curls and tucked behind my ears, frizzed more than usual. I sat at the bar, nodded to the barmaid. “Cider please,” I said. “Half or full?” she wiped her hands on a tea towel tucked into the waist of her jeans. “Half.” I hadn’t tasted cider prior to my military assignment at RAF Upper Heyford. The method to process the brew has stood the test of time. The Vinetum Brittanicum, the Treatise of Cider, written in 1676, showcases how little has changed in 340 years. Bottled fermentation, considered vogue, had launched in the 1630’s. Man has carried liquid in a variety of vessels; skins, gourds, pottery, metal, glass. Ten thousand years ago, we dug wells. Three thousand years ago the Chinese brewed tea. The Phoenicians from the Middle East invented bottles twenty-five hundred years ago. Then there’s the apple. Malus domestica. Spitter apples, best-suited for brewing cider, earned their name due to bitterness and initial instinct to spew them, then coat your tongue with something sweet, like honey or, perhaps, tar. Apples have been around since the launch of time. * Some believe Eve tempted Adam with an apple. Most Jews don’t read the text this way. Eve eats first. Adam consumes afterwards. No temptation required. The idea of temptation surrounding a forbidden fruit was derived from Christianity, St Augustine in particular, and has become the basis for a great amount of misogyny. Tempting. Plucking. 87
