SC - Price of butter

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

Apart from the occasional "there but for the grace of god go I" motif,
I'm not sure what we're accomplishing by this discussion. It seems about
as effective to have everyone post their location and the price of a
pound of ground sirloin where they live. Wonderful cooks seem to be
being put just a tad on the defensive, for not much reason.

I also come in at the high end of the quoted feast budgets. I spend more
money than I absolutely need to, particularly when buying meats from a
real butcher who will bone birds, slice and pound cutlets for aloes,
make sausage according to my recipe, and a bunch of other services as
well. Yes, I can do the job for less, but then I can't do as much in the
time I have. It all pretty much evens out in the end. As AM says about
the Madrone guild, diners get excellent value for their dollar in my
group, where $10 (a rough average) can buy them a meal they might easily
pay $50 for, elsewhere. That's assuming they could get it elsewhere.
Some cooks and autocrats in my group have been known to charge more (we
can often get up to 12 or 15 dollars for an event where the site is free
of charge, and most of the cost goes to the food) but I try to fight
this, because I feel anybody who needs more than $10 is either doing
something wrong, or is attempting something really spectacular indeed.
And I will occasionally do the stew/bread/fruit/cheese thing, usually
for around half or less what we normally charge, both to remember our
roots, to prove it can be done, and to ease people's financial burdens a
bit. Some of our events just are naturally less formal than others, too,
and this seems appropriate for those occasions, anyway.

But the SCA in any form it takes in my area, is still a cheap hobby
compared to many. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be doing it ;  ) .

Adamantius
Crown Province of Østgardr, East Kingdom (mundane New York City area,
roughly $2.89/lb, less on sale)    

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> 
> On top of that, the local wisdom of experience says we can do bread and
> stew and fruit and cheese for $3. We can do a nice feast for $6 or so, we
> can do a blow your socks off lots of fancy stuff like edible gold leaf,
> fresh flowers for garnish, fresh herbs out of season, seafood, etc for
> $8-10. (the pricey baronial banquets sell out every year in spite of the
> high ticket price. We've offered the opportunity for a lower priced "below
> the salt" feast, and there were NO takers!)
> 
> Yes, things are expensive here (thank you Bill Gates :)) but most salaries
> match it (thank you Bill Gates). We still try and give people the best darn
> meal they can put in their mouths for the price they pay.
> 
> I need to ask some of you more details HOW you manage to pull; in "lavish"
> gajillion course meals for what we could only afford as stew and sides.
> 
> --AM

- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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