SC - toys for tot feast

[Laura C. Minnick]

Michael Newton wrote:

> > Also we are a small shire with small budgets, I have trouble justifying a
> lot
> > of meat, I've never seen evidence that everyday people ate a lot of meat,
> > Same soap box I have for little squares of yellow cheese.
> 
> We are supposed to be reenacting the Gentry and Royally of the Middle Ages,
> they would eat meat at tourneys, which is what we are recreating, I would
> never want to eat a feast of everyday people food, from Period, Gruel, stale
> bread, and the very occasional piece of fruit.

DINGDINGDING!

We have (that I know of- and I've read a damned lot of period stories
about tournaments) little if any evidence of what they ate at tourneys.
And that is not necessarily what we are re-creating. (What we are doing
is very seldom period tourney, but that is another matter.) What we have
is menus and recipes from feasts, which are another animal entirely, and
has little to do with hungry fighters and alot to do with a lord showing
largesse. And a small shire just can't do largesse like a King or a
great Duke can.

Everyday food is not a feast, necessarily (though different people at a
feast got different food- the little guy at the end is not eating what
they eat at the high table. HOWEVER, I think that perpetuating the
notion that everyday food was just gruel *stale bread* and maybe a
little bread is a disservice. Perhaps the poorest of the poorest of the
poor ate like that, but not the everyday common guy, Piers Plowman and
his ilk.

Wanting to put on a feast at a tourney is admirable and can be
difficult. And I would take the hospitality of a small shire doing its
best just about anyday.

'Lainie