Yule - Stonemarche

We had a wonderful visit with our neighbors to the west for a Yule event in Stonemarche.  It was a very family oriented event, with lots of activites for the kids.  It was also a pot luck affair, so I put three meat pies together and brought those to contribute.

The event itself was quite small.  There was no A&S or martial activities, but there was a station where kids could cover pine cones with peanut butter and then roll them in birdseed to make rustic bird feeders and a station where they could decorate their own cookies.  Guess which activity the kidlet wanted to do? 

Lady Sine Ruadh Friseal organized a wonderful light event.  There was even a St. Nicholas to give presents to all of the children and who later turned into Krampus to steal the children and sell them back to their families for cookies.  Stonemarche really is full of some wonderful people.

My only regret for this event was that we didn't get our act together and give our customary house gift to Lady Sine for her fine work at this event.  Being so close to Christmas, there wasn't enough time to get it done. With luck, we'll get a chance to see her sometime in the new year and remedy this.

More medieval dinners

This recipe is not directly from a medieval source, but it contains only ingredients used in medieval cooking and follows a medieval flavor paradigm.  It is a soup that is pleasing to modern palates and at the same time, not at all out of place on a medieval feast table.

Sherried Carrot Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp butter
5–6 medium carrots, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup dry sherry (or other fortified wine)
1 tbs cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream

Saute the onion, carrots and spices in the butter until onions are soft and caramelized. Add the sherry, vinegar and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until carrots are tender. Puree in a blender until smooth. Return mixture to cooking pot and add the cream. Reheat to serving temperature, being careful not to boil. Serve hot.

Crown Tourney of King Edward II and Queen Thyra I - Endewearde

Having never been to a crown tourney, this was a wonderful time.  There was pageantry and suspense and everything one hopes for when going to SCA events. 

I submitted my two pieces to the scribal largess.  My second scroll won the intermediate category of the competition, as well as the people's choice award.  The first scroll that is a mishmash of periods and styles was chosen to be the January Pikestaff cover.  Not bad for a beginner.  We even got to meet Queen Thyra who is as lovely and personable as she is graceful.  She humored us with pictures and presented my scroll with a token of her approval.  I was quite honored.

The tournament ended with a series of battles between Eorl Kenric of Warwick and Duke Gregor von Heisler, with Duke Gregor emerging victorious.  Meanwhile, the cooks of Endewearde worked feverishly to ready the hall for feast.  And what a feast it was.

1st Remove
Salad with vinegar and oil dressing
Bread
Butters
Dizony Por z Pasternak i Gier served on... (Stew of Parsnips, Leeks and Alexanders)
Kluski z Bryndza (cheese dumplings)

2nd Remove
Kurczak Pieczony z Suszonymi Sliwkami (Chicken Baked with Prunes)
served with
Zielony Sos z Musztarda (Green mustard sauce)
Kugiel z Rzepki  (Turnip Kurdel, sort of like a turnip casserole)
Komposjtum z Kapusty, Cwikly, Kopru i Grzybow (Compositum of Cabbage, Chard, Dill and Mushroom)
 Zupa Piwna z Bryndza, lub Caseata (Beer Soup with cheese and eggs)

3rd Remove
Zrazy po Cyprjsku (Hashmeat in the Cypriot Style meat loaf of ham and beef)
Soczewica i Kruczmorka z Boczkiem  (Lentils and Skirrets with Bacon) 
Surowka z bialej kapusty  (Polish Cole Slaw)

Pieczone Owoce o Krolewsku  (Court dish of baked fruit, kind of like a cakey bread with apples, pears, raisins, almonds inside)

Of these dishes, all of which were quite good, my favorite was the first soup.  I asked Lady Leofwenn of Wytleseie for the recipe and she happily obliged.  


Dizony Por z Pasternak i Gier (Stew of parsnips, leeks, and alexanders)
4 pounds leek greens (use the leafy part that is normally discarded)
3 pounds small parsnips, trimmed, pared, and sliced on a slant to resemble thick potato chips
2 cups sliced leek, white part only
2 cups white cabbage, shredded as for sauerkraut
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, sliced in half lengthwise
6 tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon ground saffron
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cumin1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup coarsely chopped alexanders (leaves and small stems only) or celery, if alexanders cannot be found

Boil the leek greens in 1 gallon of water until soft and until the stock is reduced by one-fourth (about 1 hour). Strain and reserve the liquid, discarding the leek greens. Put the stock in a stewing pot with the parsnips, sliced leeks, cabbage, onion and garlic. Cover and stew 45 minutes, or until the parsnips are tender, then add the honey, saffron, cinnamon, salt, and vinegar. Stew 15 minutes, then add the alexanders. Let the alexanders cook for about 5 minutes, then serve immediately over pieces of stale manchet bread or cheese dumplings.

NOTE:  Alexanders and celery are similar in appearance and flavor.  As alexanders are only available in the spring, celery is a  reasonable substitute.

Kluski z Bryndza (Cheese dumplings)
 1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup barley flour
1 teaspoon mace
4 tablespoons salted butter
2 pounds farmers or feta cheese
8 egg yolks

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Melt the butter and mix into the flour and crumb thoroughly until its a loose mixture. Grate the cheese and combine with the crumb mix. Beat the egg yolks until frothy. Add to mix and work with hands into a soft paste. Form dumplings and place on a baking sheet or plate to dry for 20 minutes. While the dumplings are drying bring 1 gallon of water to a rolling boil in a large kettle. Turn the heat down to a medium low so the water is barely quivering. Add the dumplings. When they rise to the surface in about 15 minutes they are done. Or you can bake them like we did at 350 to 375 for 15 to 20 minutes.

Scroll the Second

Now that I've stretched my hand and learned that I can do scroll work, my second effort is a little less scattered.  It's based on this 16th century Exchequer File from the reign of Henry VIII. It is an account of tackle and other material provided by John Hopton, a bishop of Norwich, for the King’s ships.

I'm still using my homemade Elmer's sizing for the gilding.  The rest of the piece was done with Windsor Newton Spectrum Red, Primary Blue, and Permanent White gouaches and Holbein Yellow Ochre and Jet Black gouches.  Still using Nana's loose leaf gold and it's still a bear to work with.  Gold flakes everywhere!

I'm keeping with the crane and martlet signature on my scrolls.  I like the idea of signing them with marks instead of with a name.

I like how this came out and hopefully the recipient will too. 

Making the most of green before the white settles in

Verdant hues may be gone from this part of the world, but I've got a little bit of summer green in a bottle.  The chocolate mint was exceptionally strong smelling this year and I've been trying to think of a way to make use of it before the frost takes it away.  This is the recipe I came up with.  

Fresh Mint Liqueur

1 1/4 cups fresh mint leaves, slightly packed
3 cups vodka
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water

Wash leaves in cold water several times. Shake or pat gently dry. Snip each leaf into halves or thirds, discarding stems. Measure cut mint leaves to above measurement.

Combine leaves and vodka, steep for 2 weeks. Shake occasionally. Strain out leaves. Boil sugar and water together, cool. Add to vodka mixture. Age 1 to 3 months. Yield: 1 quart.

House Tokens for Crown Tourney A&S competition

Crown tourney is just a few weeks away and a mention was made that for the A&S competition, folks should bring tokens and vote for their favorites.  I thought I'd whip up some House Fulton tokens.  These are a terracotta colored Fimo clay that I baked in the oven to make little markers.  The design is pressed into the disks using a mold that I made from a bit of the Fimo, baked into a stamp.

Not too bad and they'll get the job done until one of us figures out how to make coins.

Scroll the First

There is a scribal largess and competition being held at Crown in Endewearde next month.  The idea is that scribes of the kingdom create blank scrolls to donate to the Crown for emergency last-minute scroll giving and there is a competition for best in category.  I haven't done a scroll in over 20 years and I've never done a scroll for kingdom use, so this is my first attempt at creating something worthy of giving.

The artwork for this comes from an assortment of sources across a couple of centuries.  The Aberdeen Bestiary and the The Alphonso Psalter plus assorted vinework and drolleries.  It's not really a good example of a period piece, but it was amusing to do and I think it has a certain charm, especially if the recipient is someone who's interest lies away from scribe stuff.

The gilding on the piece was certainly the trickiest bit.  Lacking a good gilding size, or really any knowledge whatsoever about how to do this kind of thing, I looked up directions for how to do it.  There aren't any really clear directions, but I did find a sizing recipe that is Elmer's glue, water, and a little gouache so I could see where it was on the paper.  I used an archival bookbinder's PVA instead of Elmer's and hopefully it will withstand the test of time.  Once it was mixed up, I painted it onto the areas where I wanted the leaf to go and let it dry.  Once dry, I "activated" it by breathing on it, like you would breathe on a window to fog it up, and pressed the leaf to it.  The leaf I'm using came from my grandmother's art supplies - about 30 years ago.  It's certainly older than I am and it's the loose stuff which wants to float around at the slightest hint of a breeze.  This was not an easy task, but it turned out alright in the end for a first go.  Hopefully I can pick up some tips and tricks to make this process easier.

The rest of the piece is done in Windsor Newton and Holbein gouaches.  I signed it with a crane to represent me and a black martlet to represent House Fulton.  It was cute and fun and I'm totally hooked.

Favors for Queen Thyra

A short time ago, the design for Queen Thyra's favors was published and I decided to make four to send along. 

The basic design is a T with an ivy leaf on the end.  The directions say that we can use some artistic license  with the pieces and that we can, instead of using the single leaf at the end, wrap the T in an ivy leaf.  I opted to do two of each.

The two ivy vine pieces were pretty straightforward.  I filled one in entirely with a stem stitch and did French knots on the other one.  Queen Thyra's personal arms have three lozenges on them, so on the ones without vines, I opted to put three lozenges in the thick part of the T.  One of them is done with silver thread, the other is outlined with silver beads and has some bead-work in the middle section.  They aren't the fanciest favors she'll probably receive, but hopefully they will respectably convey her favor to whomever she deems worthy.

Autocrat gift for Lady Cassandra Hobbes

It has now become tradition with House Fulton to present gifts to our hosts when we go to events.  Lord and Lady Fulton commissioned this lavender sachet for Lady Cassandra Hobbes for her good works organizing and running Harper's Retreat in Stonemarch. There was also a child's cloak presented to the Stonemarch Gold Key to help clothe any urchins who might be in need of extra warmth.  Vivat Stonemarch!

Harper's Retreat - A lovely end to summer

Our first camping event with the SCA was this weekend's Harper's Retreat in Stonemarch.  If you're able to come to this wonderful event next year, I can't recommend it enough.

We arrived Friday afternoon to a quaint summer camp in central New Hampshire and picked out a spot for the House.  Everything was set up by the time it got dark, and dinner was a peppersteak cooked on the camp stove.  It quickly became clear that I need more than the one gown.

Our campfire never really got beyond the smoking phase and I'll have to practice making a fire at home before we go camping again.  Also, a note to folks camping with small children for the first time:  No matter what they say, make your kids try to go to the bathroom before bed.  The kidlet had an accident on Friday night because she didn't know where the bathroom was.  By the time she woke us up and B got her outside to squat in the bushes, it was too late.

John Fowler showed up Saturday morning and pitched his tent on the other side of the cooking canopy and everyone had a marvelous day attending workshops, swimming in the pond and trying out a little archery.  The archery course was great fun and had a supernatural theme of shooting monsters and zombies and even a moving ghost target.  The old bow raised some eyebrows, but got passed and I was fortunate enough to get a refresher course from Dana the Unredy, a marvelous gentleman from Stonemarche who not only improved my shooting in about 15 minutes, but who also gave me my first archer's abacus.

The feast was a wonderful mix of food and music.  And the bardic circles afterward were worth the price of admission.  Can't wait for the next one!

Orchard War IV - Hadchester

When most SCA folks have gone south to participate in Pennsic, the "bandits" conduct raids on the Royal orchards in the Shire of Hadchester.  The people there have sent forth a cry to rally and help defend the lands and the people while the bulk of the armies gather to the south.

Orchard War is held up in Union, ME and was an awful lot of fun.  We only went up for a day trip, as dogs were not welcome on site, but it was a camping trip for some folks.  The event was small and it was Brenden's first.  He thought having a Chinese persona might be interesting.  I didn't quite have time to finish his garb, but he made do with a safety orange robe in a 14th century Han style. 

Archery was a big theme of this event and they had a great range that included smaller and closer targets for kids.   A wonderful gentleman named Eric loaned Abby a bow and she and Brenden shot a few arrows at a bunny target.

They did a marvelous job of having activities for kids. There were crafting projects and a hobbyhorse race and all sorts of things.  We even got some dancing in at the end of the day. 

There was an embroidery competition as well.  Basically they gave us a small hoop a square of fabric, a needle, and a couple threads of embroidery floss.  The theme was campfires and I did a quick piece that was basically an apple with a campfire where the reflection should be.  It wasn't really enough thread to do anything super complex, and I thought the design was alright but it turns out that it took the gilded apple for best embroidery!  My first prize!

Of course, we left before they handed those things out, but it was nice to know that I won.  Yipee!

Toys for the Kidlet

One of the tricks I've read on SCA with kids is to have special period toys that are only brought out at events.  The kidlet is still young enough that she finds enjoyment in blocks and bowls of water, so I painted up this trio of clothespins to go with a selection of blocks for building castles.  I also painted some smaller pawns left over from our Pandemic boardgame expansion and turned them into goblins who can attack the castle.  Simple, yet timeless.

Sunday Medieval Dinners

There are so many things that I'm excited to try my hand at that now that I've returned to the current middle ages.  The trick is that I've also got a mundane life that needs tending as well, so I can't simply rush headlong into too many projects at once.  

My solution for my cooking interest is that Sunday dinner is now a meal from the past.  There are many great period recipes online and I thought for our first Sunday dinner, I'd try something pretty simple - the basic meat pie.

The recipe came from the Boke of Gode Cookery.com.  It is essentially a list of options to choose from to make a filling.  These were the choices I made and the amounts of the various ingredients.  This was very tasty and would be good cold as well as hot.  Anything with raisins and dates makes me think of fall through, so this would be a much better dinner for right when the leaves are starting to change.

Beef and Pork Pie
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 c raisins
1 lb ground pork
1 lb minced beef

1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup stock
4 dates, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
4 egg yolks
1 9" pie crust with top crust

Soak raisins in wine until plump, anywhere from an hour to overnight. Sauté pork, beef and onion until onion is translucent. Add the stock, dates, soaked raisins and wine, salt, and spices. Let filling reduce and thicken slightly. Remove from heat and let cool. Add egg yolks, stirring well after each and put filling into a prepared, uncooked pie crust. Top with remaining pie crust and bake at 350 for 45 minutes until crust is golden.

Returning to the Past

I've been away on a pilgrimage of sorts.  Back in my college days, I was a member of the Bear Isle College in the Shire of Endewearde, in the East Kingdom.  I wore the black scarf of the Northguard.  For a short time, I served as Endewearde's chronicler.  And then life happened.

I wandered away from the Society and had adventures in the mundane world for a spell.  Then, in the summer of 2012, my captain, mentor, and friend, Gregory Finche, passed away.   At his memorial, I was gifted with the chance to reconnect with long lost companions from my days in the SCA and was easily persuaded to go to the Great Northeastern War in Malagentia.  I scrambled together to come up with garb for my daughter and myself and we had a marvelous time.

So, now we've come back to the past.

In many ways it's like starting from scratch; reassembling the pieces to build a medieval life.  The society I return to seems grander than the one I left.  It's bigger and more elaborate with talented artisans and fighters at every turn.  But, for all it's changes, there's something still so familiar about the SCA.  The generosity of total strangers.  The shared love for the old ways.  The terrible puns of the heralds.

Some things never change.

I remember being young and broke and dreaming of a day when I could afford the beautiful pavilion filled with gear that would secure me a place on enchanted ground.  Now, I'm older and less broke than I was, but with more financial responsibilities to consider.  I still can't afford the perfect medieval world - not all at once anyway, but I would love to make that dream a reality.  This is the story of my return to the current middle ages.  I share it in hopes that other new people, or perhaps gentles who are returning from their own pilgrimages to the mundane lands will find use and inspiration from these words.

In service,
Christiana Crane