SC - TI article?

[Jenne Heise]

I have just returned from the Calontir Coronation and am catching up on all the digests for sca-cooks.  I love the digest version :-)  I can speed through all the messages in no time at all, slowing down to read the ones that catch my eye, and notice right away when threads change while the title doesn't.

I feel I have to comment on the TI article as it relates to Calontir.  Beatrice came closest to describing it.  It's a kingdom thing.  We don't have fighter households, and many of our fighters travel to foreign wars without their personal families.  The soup kitchen staff is considered by the Calontiri fighters to be part of the Calontiri army, as are the waterbearers.  Not separate from, nor in addition to, but part of. And that is probably hardest for outsiders to understand.

As one who has stood in for Mistress Jenna at a foreign war that she was unable to attend due to mundane matters, I can attest to  the bonding effects of this kitchen.  Our fighters return from the fight, hot, dusty, and needing to have sodium/mineral-rich foods poured into them to rehydrate them.  (Think about all the football teams currently extolling the virtues of pickle juice in regards to their performance on the field.)  We have sent jerky and pickles out to the field with our waterbearers for years.  We give them salty soup, other cooling drinks, as well as more jerky, pickles and fresh as well as dried fruits when they return.  

The support staff gets to hear the best stories about the fight first - because as the guys all stand around drinking their soup, chawing on their jerky, they are dropping their armor from their sweat-soaked bodies and talking with great enthusiam about the action they saw and participated in.  It doesn't get any better or closer to partcipating in the war than this for the non-fighter.  It's a have to be there and experience it to truly understand it.  You work in the Calontir soup kitchen or with the waterbearers, you are one of the fighters and are greeted and smiled upon, and included in discussions as one of the fighters.  You are not an outsider or a helper.  You are truly one of them.

The main thrust of the article as I saw it, was how to support the army and to help foster the "we are one people" thinking.  I myself have heard many a time, from fighters in other kingdoms, how they wish they had the esprit d'corps our army has.  And co-incidentally, the soup kitchen.  How they envy us our soup kitchen.

The article was as much about how to build esprit d'corps as it was about how to feed an army.  As such, you can set up and run your own soup kitchen for your kingdom's army, fighting household, or just a single fighter with all period food if you want to.  The article points out the way to get started doing it for an entire army and how it works currently for that kingdom.  It also spent some time discussing how it was funded.  This is not a feast thing, nor a tavern.  It is just a soup kitchen started by a woman who once stated, it was all she could do as she only knew how to boil water.  But she wanted to contribute to the kingdom war effort.  

The TI for me, has always been more of an introduction to the Society as a  whole - and not just its authenticity in recreating the MA. If I want authenticity, I read the CA.  If I want to know about the Society, its interests, and its kingdom differences/anthropologies, I read the TI.  The TI has always been a magazine to me and not a professional journal.  I like it that way.

The ideas to write a CA about camping food and such is great.  But, it is going beyond the scope of a TI article.  I believe His Grace, Caridoc and his wonderous Lady wife have written several travel/camping food articles for the TI.   Please, write articles - the more articles the better.  I know I would love to read them.

Kateryn de Develyn

Kingdom of Calontir  
In charge of Soup Kitchen at Estrella during the reign of Gilligan and Adelith.