SC - semi-precious stones and pearls

[KallipygosRed@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/14/00 8:06:42 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
LrdRas at aol.com writes:

> <sigh> To who m? The tiny minority of the SCA. Inc. that composes the 
group? 
>  The few eventers that come their way? Would you except such a lax standard 
> in 
>  calligraphy, illumination, costuming, and any o the myriad other areas of 
>  interest in the SCA? This smacks not a little of the 'if they had it they 
>  would have used or done it' mentality. Not acceptable in any sense of the 
>  meaning, IMO.
>  
>  Ras
>  

Okay, I'm gonna get in on this, not because I have any expertise in cooking; 
I'm still learning, but because I do have some in the other areas that you 
mentioned. The "if they had had it they would have used it" terminology can 
cover a lot of ground. Yes, we know what you mean; serving potatoes, 
chocolate candy, etc.  Trying to keep a period feast period is always 
difficult with that kind of mentality working; but sometimes authenticity can 
go a little far. Insisting on strident authenticity can sometimes cause the 
feast not to go at all. If you know you are from a small barony, or a shire, 
and the people you are serving are limited; and the goal of the feast is to 
at least break even...then you need to keep in mind what people will **eat**. 
It doesn't do any good, as I've said before, to serve fish in our locality. 
It doesn't go over. We have tried salmon, trout, and various other wonderful 
fish to have it returned practically uneaten and at great cost for a small 
limited budget. At an outdoor event without proper (at least to me) ways of 
keeping the fish cold for leftovers, it means I've just paid a lot of money 
for dog food. Its unfortunate, but I know that is the way it is here. It may 
differ where you are and the "item of distaste" could be something completely 
different, like rice. I don't know. The point is, when you know that most 
folks will eat fowl, some will eat meat, that the attending king is a 
vegetarian, and the queen has an allergy to wheat based products...it can put 
a damper on the feast staying truly period. In that case, making receipes 
with period ingredients without a menu to have based them on is just about 
your only fallback. I don't know if Soy was a period ingredient, but for the 
sake of the queen, I would make soy breads. Having her sit through an eight 
course meal and not eat would be humiliating to me; and probably not real 
condusive to her coming to another feast **I** offer in the near future. Do 
you see what I'm getting at here? I'm not saying that everyone who attempts a 
feast can go into it on the perfect aspect of having a period feast in all 
respects. Alterations sometimes have to be made. Otherwise eventually no one 
will show and the whole thing becomes undoable. We've had that happen here as 
well. People want good food, edible, with tastes familiar to them, and fun 
while they do it. If that is a themed event, then great. I want to build up a 
clientele of people who know that all my feasts in the future will have good, 
tasty food; and my ultimate dream will be a completely period feast with all 
the trimmings cooked in a period way on period devices.... I can't just leap 
both feet into a feast like that without learning. I wouldn't attempt to put 
one on like that without learning. It is my goal. In the meantime, I still 
want to have fun, tasty feasts with good food as near to period as I can get 
them, while considering the aspects of the people who are likely to attend 
it. If I did it any other way I could be in the SCA for many, many years 
without ever having done a single feast! 

I'm a seamstress, not a cook--yet. I like making clothing. Yet I think 
teaching cooking and teaching sewing are similar in how they must approach it 
to the person who doesn't know how. I wouldn't take a person who has never 
stitched a seam and have them construct a pair of pants. I would start with 
simple things and possibly use fabrics for ease of wear rather than for 
authenticity. Maybe a tee-tunic out of a soft cotton instead of silk.  There 
will be mistakes; I'm aware of that as a teacher. And if my student shows up 
with a poly cotton because they cannot afford 100% cotton at that time; then 
fine; I won't send him away ridiculed for it. I will teach them the basics, 
and instruct as to why the poly cotton should not be used in the future. I 
take this further in "play": For kitchen wear I will "costume" myself in 
something that easily throws together and has the right look. It may not be 
totally authentic because I'm not gonna wear something that has eight layers 
around hot ovens; and has to be dry cleaned to boot. In court, now that may 
require the full dress. Yes, when I talk to people who are interested in 
sewing period I tell them how they can do it period.  They come to my house, 
or I to them, and we research the garment they would like to have--together.  
They learn as they go. When I talk to them and they have a specific use for 
the garment, I try to give them advice on how to make it as period as 
possible for the instance. I use a serger; on one of my other lists they have 
been talking about how Guilds require you to finish your seams in period 
style by period methods. Sorry, for this reason I will **never** join a 
guild. In our neck of the woods, it is not a requirement for A&S Competition 
to do your seams this way, just to **know** that the seams would have been 
finished that way and document it for the judges. I'm not gonna sit for hours 
and French seam a piece  by hand. To me that is a waste of my valuable time. 
I know how they were constructed, and if it becomes a requirement to 
construct it that way to enter the item; then I will consider it.  Or if I 
have a hankering to prove to myself that I can do it by hand, I might attempt 
it. But not before. Unlike the seamstresses/cooks of period, I have other 
things that I must do with my day. The same will hold for feasting, for me. 
If I know that flour and baking powder were used in a receipe for some sort 
of bread, then I have no aversion to using mixtures to cut out a step. But in 
the event of a truly full period feast, I will **know** the difference.

It was just such an attitude that kept me out of playing SCA for over ten 
years. When I began sewing and decided I wanted wonderful garb for myself, I 
made a dress with colored gores and train; absolutely hiddious. I was 
approached by one person who I knew to be a period source for clothing. I 
asked her about the gown I was wearing. She laughed. And pointed. And 
ridiculed. **She** would not have done it that way, how silly, how mundane, 
how inept. I was flat out humiliated. Then she derided my having used 12 
stitches to the inch on my sewing machine and went on about how 10 stitches 
or less was period.... I was humiliated **again** and didn't go back for 10 
years. I was asking for guidence and got derision. And I believe this is the 
SCA longtimers greatest fault in many cases. We were all "learning" at one 
time, and yet we forget to act toward the "learner" as we would have liked to 
have been treated. I know all of us have had stories told to us, or been 
involved with them first hand, about newbies who have attempted to "play" but 
have been treated rudely, crudely, and just plain cruel by others who have 
played longer and harder at the game then the newbies who are just coming 
out. It is unreal to me that I would accost a newbie about using poly-cotton 
material  and gold metalic nylon trim on his/her first attempt at costuming. 
I would find something "good" to comment on, whether it be the color, the 
style, the fit, or--as in one case--the buttons. Newbies are extremely 
fragile creatures who are shocked beyond concept and right out of the mood of 
participating if treated too roughly. Its like slamming the oven door on a 
soufle; it makes the soufle still eatible but not at all desirable to have.  
Yes, we need to teach proper technique and background for the different areas 
that constitute our disciplines, but "teaching" is the word to remember. 

I believe that since the computer age and these lists came into being, we on 
the lists are sometimes the first forage into finding out about a discipline 
others would like to learn. This list is for me. I'm learning a lot by 
lurking here. And I haven't really spoken out before because I do not have 
the expertise of many of the others here who are so well read and 
accomplished. But others who surf the net from smaller climes and come online 
to learn can be damaged enough not to return. And that would hurt the process 
of learning and passing on learning. Knowledge dies if not kept alive. Look 
at how much effort goes into deciphering a once found receipe. I would like 
to think that because I will teach my kids slowly and garner their interest 
in cooking that in 10 years when they do their first feast it will not be so 
difficult for them because of the effort we have put forth--and because we 
pass it on. The difference is, as a teacher, I know it is best learned for 
some gently and as it can be absorbed.

Okay, shutting up again.

Lars