[Sca-cooks] Creative Supplimentation

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Celia des Archier wrote:
>One of the things that has been a bit of culture shock since I moved out
>here has been the difference in cultural attitudes about feasting.  The
>first SCA folks I met out here were very kind and invited me to travel with
>their household with the upcoming Portrero War.  In an effort to repay them
>for their kindness I offered to play "camp Mom" and plan the meals,
>expecting to stay as "period" or "perioid" as possible, which shocked them.
>The idea of trying to at least contribute to the "illusion" by including
>period and perioid foods seemed foreign to them (as did the idea that their
>kids might actually enjoy those foods ;-)   I later found that the vast
>majority of the events here were 1 day events, or if they were two day
>events they concluded in the evening of day 1 and resumed on day 2.  The
>exception seemed to be the few large wars.  Again, I haven't had the chance
>to attend any events yet, and I've just recently renewed my membership, so
>this impression was obtained primarily second and third hand, by talking to
>folks, but out here feasting seems to be the exception rather than the rule,
>whereas in the Southeast it is almost always integral to the event.

Caid, as i understand (having "played" there during the summer of 
1988), has few camping event - most are, indeed, day-trip only.

I live in The West and most of our events at most levels are camping 
(Kingdom, Principality, Barony, and occasionally Shire). Before my 
back got really bad, i cooked mostly "period" food at events (now i 
have days when i can't even lift the Coleman camp stove which really 
weighs very little - and  on every day standing for extended periods 
causes back pain).

But how people feel about the food is rather individual. I have a 
number of friends who try to make mostly "period" food and i know 
people for whom a camping event is mostly hot dogs and diet soda. So 
i couldn't make blanket opinions about cultural attitudes.

Most feasts i've attended in branches of The West (since there are 
few Kingdom level feasts) have been "period". Pot-luck feasts are 
often not, but even then some contributors bring "period" food. Yet i 
hear rumors that in some other kingdoms, "period" feasts are the 
exception.

Now, as to what events have feasts, that is extremely variable from 
place to place.

We have few feasts at our camping events. Since the vast majority our 
camp sites have no available water, no showers, no electricity, and 
porta-potties only (the exceptions being two county fair sites), it's 
hardly surprising that we rarely have feasts at camping events. There 
are a few exceptions - a recent shire event made arrangements to use 
two large pavilions to shelter diners - i cooked for 150 for a 
privately-sponsored feast at a kingdom event a couple years ago - and 
i have attended a couple Mists Principality camping events that have 
had pot-luck feasts.

However, we have a fair number of feasts at one-day branch events, 
most of which serve "period" food.

So, it depends.

I'm always amazed to hear about Kingdoms that have camping events in 
which people sleep in cabins and have feasts cooked in "feast halls" 
that have electricity and plumbing!

More SCA inter-kingdom anthropology... or perhaps cultural geography...
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita