[Sca-cooks] Overdocumentation

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> I have to say that I agree. While I understand that many people find that 
> they are more motivated to push for a higher standard in their work when 
> they are working on a contest entry, I find that there is a negative 
> flipside to this- that is, the idea that you only do the research/use the 
> period techniques/use the most authentic of materials when you're doing it 
> for a contest. How many times have you heard someone say something like 
> "Oh, this isn't period, it's not for a contest or anything"?

Very seldom, actually.
 
> Putting together documentation for a project is a good way to check our own 
> progress- it makes it a little harder to let things slide (or at least we 
> have to be honest about it). But in a perfect world, we would do the 
> research and craftsmanship for the pleasure of itself- just because it's a 
> neat thing to do, not because of an external reward. Of course this isn't a 
> perfect world...

I use contests and displays as deadlines for me to do my research and 
write it up, when it comes to a particular herbal item. That's where 
things like:
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/teeth.html
and
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/eggs/eggdyes.html

After I've done the research, or before I've finished the research, I 
may opt to take short cuts. I wouldn't enter them in a competition in 
most cases... but that's not because I value the external reward more 
than the research, it's that those venues offer a possibility of sharing 
my art at the highest level with artisans who will appreciate it, while 
I may cut some corners when dragging my stuff all 'round the kingdom in 
order to be able to introduce it to more people.

I was told, emphatically, that lemon syrup drink made from fresh lemon 
juice was very different from that made with reconstituted lemon juice. 
But, for a dayboard for 700, I used the reconstituted stuff. For a feast 
for 80, where I only had to do 8 pitchers worth, I juiced the 40 lemons 
and made it fresh. And that's when I found out there isn't that much 
difference after you've heat-processed it to make syrup.

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"The toad beneath the harrow knows/exactly where each tooth-point goes,
The butterfly upon the road/Preaches contentment to that toad." 
			- Rudyard Kipling