Tourist season is hitting the House pretty hard. We’re all trying to keep going on things, but when your day is long and your sleep short, something’s gotta give.
Still standard meeting times this week. Anything extra (Thursday Herbs) is either going to be on the Facebook group or private. The work space is *very* limited at Anja and Loren’s shop at the moment.
…and that poor guy with the boots in the “Funnies” section…. I almost feel bad for laughing, but who could
help it!?!?!!
- Herb Bunch – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 11am-1pm
- Sewing Time – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 3-5pm
- Project Day – At Ancient Light, Sundays, Noon to 6pm
- Next Potluck – 7/15, 8/19, 9/16
- Winter Feast Tentative date is 2/17/19
Here is the direct Portfolio link which has all the past Project Day reports and various projects, original here: https://housecapuchin.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and new one here: https://housecapuchin2.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and number three is here: https://housecapuchin3.wordpress.com/portfolio/
Mourning for a Prince – His Royal Highness Titus Scipio Germanicus
This is a picture of Prince Titus and Her Royal Highness Anna Leigh taken at court at Battlemoor (Kingdom of the Outlands) the day before he passed away.
What happened:
What is now known is that Their Royal Highnesses where visiting the Kingdom of Outlands and attending their Event, Battlemoor. His Highness became short of breath after fighting and sought medical attention. He was then transferred to the local hospital where tests where done and it was found that he had a blood clot in his lungs which caused him to have a cardiac arrest and pass from this world, despite the ER personnel’s best effort. Her Royal Highness was by his side the entire time.
Note: Kingdom of the Outlands territority – includes all of New Mexico and Colorado, as well as parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and a tiny part of west Texas.
A picture is worth a thousand words. As a photographer who also likes to document memories at SCA events, this one really stands out. Thank you, Marcy for taking this photo. In this photo, this wonderful woman embodies heartache, humility, strength, and pride.
“After His Royal Highness Titus Scipio Germanicus had passed, a little more than 24 hours later, Her Highness Anna Leigh chose to join the evening Court. Of course, no one would have blamed her for not attending. As noted, she carried His Highness’s coronet into court with her. She arrived in court surrounded by the Outlandish Queen’s Guard. We all rose, and applauded long and hard, and most of us wept.
Later in that court, Her Highness spoke on the love that she felt from all those at Battlemoor in light of this tragedy, and that she would leave the site with love in her heart. And again we rose, applauded, and wept.” Photo credit by Marcy Riviezzo.
Early Week
Loren and Anja acquired a 3-hole crockpot for potlucks! (pic in potluck pix) It’s something Anja’s been wanting for awhile. The quantities that it holds are smaller, better for the small group things that we do, like the potlucks. Loren kept sanding on the Hedeby bag frame and Anja tracked down some fabric for it, finally. Since it’s being made for her use (Loren gets the next one) she wanted it to be in blue/silver with her snowflakes…. ended up with black/white/gold with the snowflakes, so she’s happy. She was working on embroidery and sewing during the early week, more progress on the blackwork from last week, and some miscellaneous pouches that needed to be finished.
Cookery – Tymberhavene’s potluck was on Wednesday. We decided to cook up the pork roast 
that we also used on Sunday, but to make the period sauce on Sunday when Anja had a few more brain cells to rub together. Anja also got an answer to the weirdness with the “flower” (flour) in the following recipe from Hannah Wolley (1670)
“From Hannah Wolley’s Queen-Like Closet – _To rost Pork without the Skin._ Take any joint of small Pork, not salted and lay it to the fire till the Skin may be taken off, then take it from the fire and take off the Skin, then stick it with Rosemary and Cloves, and lay it to the fire again, then salt it and rost it carefully, then make Sauce for it with Claret Wine, white bread sliced thin, a little water, and some beaten Cinamon; boil these well together, then put in some Salt, a little Butter, Vinegar, or Juice of Limon, and a little sugar, when your Pork is rosted enough, then flower it, and lay it into a Dish with the Sauce, and serve it in.”
“Flower”? “Flour”? Anja was speculating about garnishes, but apparently the idea is to sop up fat globs before they plop into the sauce and make a mess! The sauce is wine/bread-based, not butter/flour, so fat globs would not improve the look. If you dust flour on a fatty meat that’s hot out of the oven it apparently cooks it just enough to not be raw. …Being that the intent was to use a lean pork tenderloin (not period, but also not fatty….) as the roast, we skipped the step.
So Tuesday evening, the pork roast was set out to thaw, spiced with caraway and mustard, and a couple of bags of frozen carrots were pulled out to make another dish for the potlucks. We set up a purchased cherry sauce for Wednesday, planning to make the “claret” one on Sunday.
Gogor and Anja spent awhile online on Saturday talking recipes. Anja was working from The Good Hus-wif’s Jewell and found this recipe:
“To make a sirop for bake meates.
Take Ginger, Cloues and Mace, Nutmegs, beat al these togeather very fine, and boyle them in good red Vineger vntil it be somewhat thicke, thys beeyng doone, drawe your pye when it is harde baked, and a small hole being made in the couer thereof at the first, with a Tunnell of paste, you must powre the sirroppe into the pye, that doone, couer the hole with maste, and shalb the pye well, and set it againe in the Ouen till it be throughly baked, and when you haue drawne it, turne the bottome vpward vntill it be serued. ”
…and translated it this way:
To make a syrup for baked meat. Take Ginger, Cloves and Mace, Nutmegs, beat all these together very fine, and boil them in good red Vinegar until it be somewhat thick. Bake your pie until the internal temp is at least 170. Make a small hole in the center of the top crust and pour the syrup in using a funnel. Then cover the hole with a scrap of your pie dough, and shake the pie well. (If you’re going to put egg on the crust, do it at this point.) Put it back in the Oven till it is thoroughly baked. (180 on a thermometer and the crust golden) When you have taken it out of the oven turn the upside down until it is served.
… then this one for the pie itself:
… it’s got extra fats in it because…bunny…
For to bake a Hare. Take your Hare and perboile him, and mince him, and then beate him in a morter very fine, liuer and all if you will, and season it with all kinde of spices and salte, and doe him together with the yolkes of seauen or eight egges, and when you haue made him vp together, drawe larde verie thicke through him, and mingle them altogether, and put him in a Pye, and put in butter before you close him vp.
Pretty much that’s:
Put the meat in a covered heavy pot with about an inch of water in the bottom or a crockpot. Cook on low for about 4 hours. After it’s cooked, run it through the food processor, then add whatever spices you want and salt (and chopped dates, or cherries and/or ground almonds or pecans). Mix it up with a lot of eggs (you can use just yolks if you have other uses for the whites) Park it in your pie shell and dot the top with butter. Take your top crust and cut a round hole in the middle, big enough to put a funnel into. Save the leftover bit. ….then follow the sirop recipe above. Use extra lard or butter for bunny or add bacon to it. Other meats don’t need it. …although bacon is always tasty! 🙂
…and on Saturday Anja found a possible sugar-layering recipe.
…and got an answer to a query about another recipe (this one for cookies) that “God’s Good” is yeast. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=RS1uBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT102&lpg=PT102&dq=little+Gods+good+about+a+sponfull+yeast&source=bl&ots=aluzvyo_LM&sig=8H1MpYjF8oDrdmdv6V38-Nd85og&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjA44SZ0J_cAhUPv5QKHbQVB9MQ6AEIVDAL#v=onepage&q=little%20Gods%20good%20about%20a%20sponfull%20yeast&f=false
Tymberhavene A&S Potluck – Anja wanted to get the embroidered pouches to their recipients since she couldn’t do that for Investiture. She and Loren talking about mailing them, but decided instead to go to this week’s A&S & Potluck in Tymberhavene.
No one got pictures, but all kinds of projects were talked about from bone-decorated, lighted, electriclally lightning-scorched bog chairs and bone-ended bows, and tails, to blackwork, armor, culinary stuff (Seamus’ soup was to die for!) 14th century Welsh STD treatments (and the commentary left the researcher blushing) and eventually discussing with a new person how to really get started.
The pork, etc. was a hit, but we need to remember an extension cord to take to the potlucks because our stuff ends up sitting on the counter, a distance away from the rest of the food, so some didn’t get eaten. That’s ok. Anja and Loren feasted once they were home! We discovered that two slices of the pork with the cherry sauce dribbled over between two slices of good seed bread is delicious!
Folks chowed on the bean pickle, as well, and about 2/3 of the other things were eaten. We had a great time!
The awesome Soup recipe from Seamus
The stilling of a capon a great restoritie. Take a yong Capon that is well fleshed and not fat, & a knuckle of yong Ueale that is sucking, and let not fat be vpon it, and all to back it bones and all, and fles the cap on cleane the skin from the fleshe, and quarter it in foure quarters, and all to burst it bones and al, and put the Ueale and it altogether in an earthen pot, and Page 49 put to it a pinte of Red wine, and eight spoonfulles of rose water, and half a pound of small raisons and Currants, and soure Dates quartred, and a handfull of Rose∣mary flowers, and a handful of Burrage flowers, and twenty or thirtie whole ma∣ces, and take and couer the pot close with a couer, and take paste and put about the pols mouth that no ayre come forth, and set it within a brasse pot full of water on the fire, and let it boile there eight houres and then take the ladle and bruse it alto∣gether within the pot, and put it in a faire strainer, and straine it through with the Ladle, and let no fat be vpon the broth, but that it may be blowne or els taken with a feather, and euery daye next your hart drinke halfe a dozen spoonefulles thereof, with a Cake of Manus christi, and againe at foure of the clocke in the afternoone
It was loosely based on that recipe. I left out the veal and rosemary.
(…and he used potato gnocci, rather than making dumplings because he ran out of time.)
- There’s a good Wikipedia article about this cookbook. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Huswifes_Jewell
- …and a transcription of it here: http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/ghj1596.txt
- ….and omgs a whole slew of cookbooks on Gode Cookery! http://www.godecookery.com/PDF/CookingPDFs.html …and it’s a whole PDF that took almost an hour to download…. All kinds of Renn cookbooks!
Sewing – What little happened during the week was at the Tymberhavene A&S, although Anja had to cut out a mistake that has to be redone. (bottom, left)
Sewing Time – Saturday – …ended up with no one there, including Anja, because she was still doing herb stuffs, so she pulled things out Saturday evening and did a little.
Herb Bunch – Had a special session Thursday evening. A bunch of plants needed to be re-potted and starts started, so Anja and two youngsters worked for a couple of hours on just that. It was all techniques, rather than period plants, so we didn’t take pix until Saturday.
On Saturday there were some harvested plants, mostly bracken and fern, but with some other bits. The big thing, though, was to do starts for some roses. They’re rooted in potatoes, which means that you punch a hole into the potato, make a fresh cut on the rose stem and then shove it into the potato until a growth node is inside, at least a little. They were put into a pot all together and then watered. The onion in the middle is because it was sprouting and not any good for cooking.
Little garlics went in around that and another set of cuttings without potatoes because we ran out. …and we ended up talking to several young customers about how you can raise garlics from the teeny ones at the center of the commercial bulbs. It’s funny how people don’t know.
…and Yseult stopped in to drop off some notebooks that Loren and Anja are to scan out of the extra Adiantum Baronial Library things. She was heading for the rhododendron place nearby.
…and more potting up of things happened. It was mostly geraniums that had broken off some of the larger plants. (Pelargoniums, the plants we call geraniums, show up first in 1577, but weren’t much cultivated until the 1700’s.)
Project Day & Potluck
Got a little weird for the start. The Job Corps group is trying to power through the Sunday morning course, so we’re staying later and later into the time that would normally be only Projects. That means Anja didn’t get started until later in the day and Loren was working with customers a lot, but he also did a beautiful bread loaf.
So, cooking started at 3:30!. We would normally have at least set things up in the morning. …but just about everything was cooked and only needed to be heated.
…and by 4:45, everything was ready. …so we got pictures and sat and waited. By 5:30, we were still the only ones there, so we ate. …and then put everything away. …and then went home, exhausted.
Potluck Menu
- Pork Roast
- Cherry sauce
- bread
- garlic butter
- Pickled beans
- Vampire Slayer Cheese
- Beef and Vegetable Stew
- Carrots cooked with honey & nutmeg
Miscellaneous pix
Music –
Medieval France Jaufre Rudel, XII siécle Troubadour Ars Antigua EGMusic Classic – Published on May 18, 2017
Álbum: Jaufre Rudel: Troubadour Artista: La Compagnie Médievale, Hervé Berteaux, Marc Bernad, Christian Buono, Iyad Haimour, Louis Soret 01. Vida : Prologue terra tremuit 0:00 02. La passion du jeu : Decius 1:28 03. La passion du jeu : Officium lusorum 2:33 04. Les risques de la courtoisie : Bel m’es l’estius, En un vergier, Bel m’es l’estius 14:00 05. Réflexions : Quan lo rossinhols 22:31 06. Réflexions : Rex omnia 27:21 07. La décision : De monte lápis 29:47 08. La décision : Quan lo rossinhols 32:36 09. Le départ : Quan lo riu de la Fontana 33:32 10. Le départ : Qui non sap chantar 37:39 11. Le voyage et la croisade : Safar 39:49 12. Le voyage et la croisade : Chevalier, Mult estes guaritz 41:21 13. Le voyage et la croisade : Christus vincit 44:36 14. Le doute : Non sap chantar 47:57 15. La mort : Imlaya 50:09 16. La mort : Lan quan li jorn 55:56 17. Vida : Epilogue terra tremuit 1:04:10 Origem Musica Medieval – Tradução Português.
War pix – Pic by Nicholas Marcelja/Grendal
Moar War – 1st Crossroads Battle from AnTir/West War – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCf11Z5A74k&feature=youtu.be
Miscellaneous War pix
Links
- Who owns the wreck? https://www.livescience.com/63041-florida-shipwreck-worth-millions.html
- This is kinda funny! https://www.livescience.com/62588-ancient-shipwreck-made-in-china.html
- Three of the pictured embroidered book covers are within SCA period – https://publicdomainreview.org/2018/03/21/pens-and-needles-reviving-book-embroidery-in-victorian-england/
A great Idea for Tourney Coolers – Ellen Cameron
Feeling smug. I came across an idea (on the Internet, natch) for making reusable, non-wet freezy-things for the cooler. So I started to make some, because our cooler — the one my husband built of wood, insulated with Styrofoam ™, and lined with very thin plywood) — isn’t one that can have lots of loose water wandering around inside.
It’s pretty simple: get a length of PVC pipe (I used 1-1/4 inch) and some end caps. Cut the pipe into lengths that will fit in the bottom of the cooler, *allowing for the end caps*. Clean the pipe carefully and, using PVC glue, cement an end cap to one end of each pipe. Wait a bit, then add water to each pipe, leaving it a couple of inches short of the top (this is important, because water expands a bit when it freezes). Glue the other end caps on — you’ll need to hold them down firmly for a few seconds while the glue dries, because the air inside is compressed and it will try to push that second end cap off. Stick the tubes in the freezer; when you want to go somewhere with your cooler, put the frozen tubes in the bottom. They won’t (if you’ve done it right) fill your cooler with water like ice does; they won’t split like half-gallon milk jugs do; and they don’t leave you with awkwardly-shaped spaces for the food.
Okay, here’s where the smug part comes in. After cementing the first end caps on, I realized that, with water in the pipes, I couldn’t lay them down to attach the other caps — not if I wanted the water to stay put. What to do, what to do . . . Aha! Yesterday I bottled up my cherry vinegar (anyone interested?), and to do that I had bought a case of a dozen bottles. Didn’t use all the bottles; and there, on the kitchen floor, is the box with three bottles and the nice cardboard dividers still in place, delineating spaces that are JUST THE RIGHT SIZE!! So the five water-filled tubes went into the spaces, and I was able to finish the job with a minimum of swear words. One needs to be thrifty with one’s resources, after all.
Funnies
Found on the Internet, credit given to the poor Lord at the end:
The following is an actual ad on EBay. The seller is known in the SCA as Lord Gustav Jameson of Calontir, who hails from Kansas City, MO. I copied it here because the story is that good and the ad expires in three days.
~SCA Boots of Pain Handmade by an idiot.
This auction is for this particular pair of cursed SCA boots of pain. I’m never making another pair of these again. I’m not in the business of selling boots. I just want these gone. Here’s the story….
After a soggy wet Lilies war last year, I decided that it would be good to have new pair of boots. I wanted boots I could fight in, and that would last a long time. So I bought some 9-10 oz natural tan leather – the same stuff you might make armor from, and set out to make myself a pair of boots. I got the boots done, and they fit too tight.
So my buddy Aidon and I went to the local leather shop to try to find some sort of leather lotion or softener. The guy sold me some stuff called “saddle butter”, he said it would make them all soft and comfy and they would break in well. “Just use a heat gun to warm them up and paint this stuff on them.” Great! So I go home.
I don’t have a heat gun so I fire up the kitchen oven and warm up the boots. I start taking glops of this saddle butter and rubbing it into the boots. The smell was very familiar, but did not register with me right at first. All done! The boots are very soft and floppy. So I put them out on the counter to dry. I come back 30 minutes later and they are hard as a rock. I look at the label on the saddle butter. “Bee’s wax, Carnauba wax, Paraffin wax…” F#ckin great! I just Cuir Bouilli’d my boots.
So now they are still too tight, and they are hard as a f#ckin rock. I try to force them on with a shoe horn. I try to grease my foot with vegetable oil. I can barely get them on, but they are so tight they hurt. I try walking around the block a few times to see if that helps, but to no avail.
So I call my Dad. Dad says to take rubbing alcohol and water 1:1 and rub them inside the boots and put them on. That will stretch them out to fit. So I mix up the boot stretch cocktail and, being a little impatient, I rub it all over the boots inside and out. Then shoe horn them back on. I get about five steps before the sensation of a burning fiery agony reaches my lizard brain. Unknown to me at that time I had rubbed an open blister on the top of my fourth toe in the vegetable oil attempt to stretch them out. Now the alcohol was hitting open nerves. Screaming in agony, I drop to the floor, and try to pull the boots of pain off my feet. They won’t give. They stretched just enough to get a good suction and weren’t going anywhere.
My buddy Aidon was there for this entire ordeal, but can’t help me because he’s incapacitated with laughter. “Get them off! Get them off!” I scream. He grabs my right foot and pulls on the boot. Pulls hard enough that he pulls me down the hallway of my house. My shirt rolls up and the carpet puts a long red burn across the small of my back. He still can’t get the boot off, so he tries to put his foot on something to lend leverage so he can pull harder. Unfortunately, the item he chooses to brace against was my groin. So now I’ve got a 300 pound dude standing on my (omg!) while my foot is on fire. Suddenly the boot comes free. Aidon is sent sprawling backward and I’m just glad he’s not standing on my junk anymore. Then I hear that tell-tale dull thud. The sort of dull thud that drywall makes when a 300-pound dude knocks a hole in it the size of his back. I look up, Aidon is holding the boot still, and “sitting” in the hole he created in my wall.
by Lord Gustav Jameson of Calontir~
Anja, Loren, 2 Herb Bunch, Amy, Stella (V), Gogor (V)
Largesse Item Count – (includes gifts, prizes, auction items, etc.)
- ASXLVII = 24
- ASXLVIII = 88
- ASXLIX = 794
- ASL = 2138
- ASLI = 731
- ASLII = 304
- ASLIII – 7 plus 25 pouches for block-printing, 15 (plus 25 unfinished) pincushion, 2 sewing kits (except for bone needles), varnished stuff (124) 7 snap pouch, one double drawstring pouch, 4 brocade pouch
Total as a Household = 3671 handed off
In ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 7/8/18 & published 7/15/18 (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 7/15/18
House Capuchin 3 
Leave a Reply