SC - Re: Serving game at feasts

[Barbara Evans]

Is serving wild game at a feast in New York state and charging money for the
feast the same thing as "selling wild game?"
My group is in upstate New York, and we once served up a deer that had been
hit by a car just outside our camping site. The driver had left the deer, we
called the sheriff, he put the deer out of its misery, and then gave us the
tag. In very short order, the deer was turned into stew meat and venison
steaks (we had a refrigerator/freezer on site.) The hide was stretched and
tanned with the brains, and some of our folks were turning the horns and
hooves into useful items. This site was a remote, forested area, at a sort
of ruined stone "castle" built by a "mad Englishman" during the 19th
century, and the total effect was so period that it was spooky. (The place
was called the Stone Barn Castle and was run as a tourist attraction; there
were also friendly white horses and assorted peacocks roaming the grounds.
You could go up the winding stairs to the top of the tower, hold court
inside the courtyard, and have a heck of a bardic circle around the huge
stone fireplace.)
The feast and site fee ended up being either $3 or $5 for the weekend, as we
were just charging enough to cover the costs.

Mathilde

>
> Morgana Abbey wrote:
>>
>> OK, I'm really at wits' end here, and I want a heads up type of answer.
>> (Master A, you're on the opposite end of the state, but the laws and regs
>> don't change.)
>>
>> I have people here yammering at me that "it's against the law to serve
>> game."  They go on more than that, the upshot being that my idea to serve
>> a period-style hunters' feast at an archery event is somehow banned by
>> Corpora.
>>
>> Since when?  and when did SCA feasts stop being in the same legal
>> neighborhood as church suppers?  They are even saying that we have to
>> save the barcodes from the canned goods "because someone might get food
>> poisoning"
>>
>> If any of this is going to be true, I really will shread my membership.
>> As it is, I have no desire to do so much as bake muffins for this lot.
>> They can eat KFC 'til their arteries implode.
>
> I _think_ the legal thingy is that it is against the law in New York
> State (and some other states) to _sell_  _wild game_ taken in the state.
> This was the deal in New York the last time I checked. Domestically
> raised "game" animals, venison, pheasants, whatever, are fine for
> commercial sale, fine for serving to friends, whatever. My butcher sells
> various kinds. Wild game is fine for a non-commercial setting. If you're
> having game donated for a feast, it probably can be justified fairly
> easily, for example by having everybody pre-reg, so no money that can be
> easily said to be in payment for the game changes hands on the day of
> the event.
>
> I'm sure I'm shocking the List-Luddites, but what the hey. I live in the
> New York City of Giuliani the First, I no longer remember what personal
> freedoms are.
>
> Adamantius
> - --
> Phil & Susan Troy
>
> troy at asan.com
>
> ------------------------------