[Sca-cooks] remember the 'herbalist'?

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 11 Dec 2002, at 16:12, Laura C. Minnick wrote:

> Hi all!
>
> Remember awhile back that badly-written article pruporting to be about
> medieval herbalism? And how nasty the gal got when several of us wrote to
> comment? Well, apparently she's still pissed, and she went through a bunch
> of teh list archives to load up on ammo for whatever personal crusade it is
> she's on.

I didn't look at the article that closely when the link was first posted.  I just
went back, and some of the other material on that page is interesting.

At the end of the article, she gives some herbal recipes and redactions.
Most of them are credited as being from "Mother Nature's Herbal" by Judy
Griffin, PhD.  (Dr. Griffin has a PhD in nutrition, and is a Master Gardener.)
Other recipes are uncredited.  One is "A Flaune of Almayne" from "Ancient
Cookery".  AC is the source of the original, but the redaction is from the
Miscellany.  She gives a link to the recipe index, but does not credit
Cariadoc and Elizabeth on her own page.  Another, for "Blue Summer
Sauce" has been paraphrased from "The Medieval Kitchen" by Redon et al.
She may have gotten it from the book, or from the U of Chicago Press
website at:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/706842.html.


There are links to some SCA-related sites: the Florilegium file on caudles,
the website of the herbal guild of the Shire of Vanished Wood, Cariadoc's
article on "Some Recipes of al-Andalus" and a link to his recipe index.  The
latter is labelled "Ancient Cookery," as if that were the title of the website.
If she doesn't value the opinions of researchers without doctorates in a
relevant field, why the links?

Incidently, the indignant editor is not the person who wrote the article.  It is
credited to "Endora," a staff member of alternative-beauty.com.  According
to the description at: http://www.alternative-beauty.com/staff.htm her
primary roles seem to be running the site's forum, and writing articles on
spiritual and mystical topics.  Her listing also says, "She will NOT be
personally handling complaints however (she says it screws up her vibe),
so the less enchanting feedback we may receive will be promptly forwarded
to our more professionally competent editor."


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net