SC - What would you do? or 2 months to freak out

[micaylah]

Micaylah said:
> > Plan for fruit (oranges and bananas go quickly if you
> > can reconcile them with your authenticity level) and vegetables -- see
> if
> > you can get them from a local produce auction or marketer.
> 
> IIRC, last year banana peels were found in a midden in Britain dating
> back to our time frame.

Umm. I'd hate to see a possibly rare, even one-time import of some
bananas used to justify the use of bananas as period. There appears
to be some real question as to whether that find actually dates from
within our period, at all. For more details, see this file in the
FOOD-FRUITS section of the Florilegium:
bananas-msg       (17K)  1/24/01    Period bananas. When and where
known.
 
> As well, while the oranges we see today are a far cry from the oranges
> in period, you can make it a safe bet that the authenticity
> nat..err....mavens will be happy. The 10 foot rule applies here n'est
> pas?

I guess that's okay, if the ten-foot rule is your prime determination 
of whether something should be used in the SCA. Is this really what 
you really meant to say? If so, then would it really matter if our 
feasts tasted horrible, so long as they looked period?

"Hey, I'll take some of those 'armored' potatos. Much better tasting
than those armored turnips. Looks the same either way, especially
from ten feet." :-)

Actually, oranges might be okay as both sweet and sour oranges were
used by 1600. Perhaps apples or grapes might be better choices though.

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net