[Sca-cooks] Taking a Break from Pennsic

[ruadh]

things going on at Pennsic, a cook and A&S view ... F.Y.I.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 9:11 AM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Taking a Break from Pennsic


> Greetings, all.  After a week at Pennsic, I'm home (in air
> conditioning!!) for a night and half a day.  With heat indices of
> around 106 and 108, the battle field was closed, culminating in a
> final day with a heat index of 118/119.  I spent the afternoon lying
> down with ice on various parts of me.  There were nearly 5000 people
> on site when I left Friday afternoon.  A wind storm had blown down a
> few structures the night before, but the thunderstorms that should
> have wet us were rather feeble.  Also when I left, the class count
> was 1199 and rising.
>
> The bread baking class instructor sends a loaf of his bread (and
> homemade jelly or preserves) to A&S when his representative arrives
> to collect the students to take them back to his camp for the class.
> Much appreciated!  There's been talk (mostly instigated by me) that
> next year someone (not me) should lead a Tour of Pennsic Kitchens
> class.  General chat about camping kitchens followed by seeing some
> of the really intriguing setups.  Also one on Pennsic Showers,
> Inside Pennsic Tents, Pennsic Gates, Pennsic Structures...
>
> As A&S Coordinator, I can't always get away from the Point to get
> food, and with the heat I don't always feel hungry.  Arundel, a cook
> and brewer from the Midrealm, was chatting with me at the Point and
> complaining that he had leftovers which he'd rather not have.  So,
> he brought me a lovely lunch snack (on the 118+ heat index day) of a
> vegetable frittata, some sort of herbed potatoes, a fruit compote,
> and a pork roast covered with grains of paradise.  One of my local
> group's camps had salmon one night, lamb another and so on.
> Ealdred, the super-talented cook (and mundanely a physician who
> teaches classes about heart-healthy foods), has a lovely kitchen
> setup with just about everything one would need.  Last year that
> camp made a clay oven and baked a number of goodies with varying
> success.
>
> The booksellers (notably Poison Pen Press and Potboiler Press)  are
> there.  Poison Pen is in a tent with four or so other booksellers.
> Devra almost had to cover her ears to block out my involuntary
> shrieks as I found a copy of Peter Brear's book _All the King's
> Cooks_ and the Arabic cookery one.  She managed to relieve me of
> quite a few dollars.  I even succumbed to purchasing two German
> language cookery books - and I don't know German.  I passed up the
> one in Fractur that is a facsimile of a period book.  Managed to get
> Vincente Cueca's Catalan translation from Alban.
>
> They are still expecting some 13,000 (!) people this year.  We will
> be cheek-by-jowl by next weekend.  Enjoy any cool air you may have.
> I'm back off to sweat at Pennsic!
>
> Alys Katharine
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks