SC - Feast Pre-registration

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

We are asked to create a feast that will drive away apathy and encourage
happy and courteous people.

At a local event, we had a boon day meal. According to my research, it was
the right of the lord of the manor to demand so many days of labor from his
people. In return for a hard day of shearing, harvesting, plowing,
whatever, the lord was expected to provide a meal. There are actually
specific descriptions of the meal, and being a cheapskate was frowned on.

To this end, our Baron and Baroness "Provided" the boon day meal (cooked by
yours truely with a stalwart crew of incredibly useful people) to the
populace to reward them for their hard work in the last year. The menu was
simple. Vegetarians were provided for, with no extra dishes. All the dishes
were not only period, but copies of the documentation were handed out to
the diners as they came through with their plates (hee hee hee...you should
have seen the look on their faces!)

The menu:
Frumenty (barley in veggie broth)
funges (mushrooms stewed in veggie broth with poudre forte)
cretonnee of new peas (a cream of peas soup, flavored with herbs)
Tarte of Flessche (a substantial meat pie)
pears in syrrope (your ubiquitous pears stewed in port and spice)

We made the barley ahead of time in small batches and put it in seal a meal
bags. The bags were thrown into boiling water on camp stoves on site and
served hot. no burning! no scorching!! No gloppy starch mess! The cretonne
was also made ahead of time, mostly becuase it was one less thing to do on
site. The pies were also made ahead of time and served at room temperature.
(We kept them in a fridge near the site and threw them in the oven for a
few mintes to take the chill off). Everything else was made on camp stoves,
on site. The food was carried down to the field on a large board, just like
a Brugel painting! And there wasnt a crumb leftover. Hah!

People sat on the grass and ate away happily. it was an opportunity for
socializing, without the formality of a sit down feast. The food was good,
hot and PERIOD!! :) The only dietary group not really served was vegan, but
I can't think of any of those in my barony anyway. Folks seemed to have a
good time, and since the menu was so simple, the cooks got to have fun too!
It was mostly a boil and serve kind of thing, so we got to play and frolic
in the grass with our friends.

I'll be submitting this as an article to the TI...including all the
recipes, etc.
- --Anne-Marie
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