[Sca-cooks] Current farm prices and affects on feast budgeting

[Lilinah]

Kiri wrote:
>I hear you!  The only feast I've cooked for the past 3 years has been the
>Middle Eastern feast.  I do find, as Bear mentioned in a snipped part, that
>I tire out much easier now than I did some 25 years ago or so (I started
>late...I guess I was in my late 30's).

Hey, i joined the SCA at 50 :-)

>But somehow it all seems worthwhile
>when I hear that they're talking about the feast on the Middle Eastern
>list!!

Which list?

>And...I also go out into the hall after I'm done...not only to relax and
>visit with friends whom I have seen all day, but to hear commentary on the
>feast.  I think my favorite Atlantian tradition is when the ruling nobles
>call the cooks out to thank them...and we usually get a standing ovation!
>That feels good!!!  And yes, I am a ham...I also do theatre work, so this is
>very meaningful to me.

I gotta say that i was rather peeved a few months back.

As you all know, for the Fall Mists Principality Investiture I cooked 
an Ottoman feast from period recipes and feast descriptions from a 
French book that i translated into English. At some point in the 
evening i was called out and thanked in a rather off hand way. I was 
tired and my mind was on other things so i didn't really think about 
the details. And i don't cook for the thanks - i do it because it's 
an opportunity to do research and make good food.

But then a few weeks later when i was at a shire level feast, the 
same Royalty not only had the cook called out but the entire crew - 
which is what is usually the norm - and then gave them all coins of 
their reign.

So at that point i got quite irked - not that i was slighted, but 
that my hard working crew had been slighted!

First, i was personally proud that only 4 of us had cooked the whole 
feast for 72 who had RSVP'd (although it turned out only about 48 
showed up because of the weather), with one dedicated washer-upper, 
and assistance by my consort early in the day (he had other things to 
do once court started). Second, one of the cooks had driven a long 
way to help me make hundreds of little pastries a couple days before. 
Third, another of my crew had made an absolutely fabulous completely 
edible subtlety of the gardens of the Topkapi Palace. Then we four 
made hundreds of meat balls and manti on site - because i'd been sick 
for 2 weeks before the feast, and couldn't make them myself. And 
finally, for the fourth of my cooks this was her first time in a 
feast kitchen. So they all definitely deserved to be seen and thanked.

Let me add that the Princess is someone of long experience and had 
already previously been royalty several times before this and that 
the P&P already had their reign's coins because my consort is the 
Principality Moneyer and he had given them their sackful during the 
Investiture.

If the Royalty didn't like the feast, fine, please let me know you 
are dissatisfied and tell me what was wrong. I'm the Head Cook, i can 
take the heat.

But don't snub my crew!
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah