[Sca-cooks] ISO Hints for Teaching at Pennsic

[Haraldr Bassi]

On 9/2/11 1:13 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> As y'all know, i attended my second Pennsic this year.
>
> Prior to this year i was not sure if i was up to teaching at an institution as venerable and
> mythic as Pennsic, but after attending a class during which i must have mentally face-palmed
> a dozen times (no, Saddam Hussein did not change the name of Persia to Iran; no, Iraqis and
> Iranians are not culturally the same; etc.), i think i am sufficiently capable.
>
> So i was wondering if anyone on this list might have some helpful hints for teaching
> SCA-period food oriented classes to people from all over the known world at Pennsic.

I've not taught period food classes at Pennsic, but have taught both in Pennsic University tents 
and much more often in my camp. Our camp has been known to host so many classes that our 
dedicated teaching tent is often booked for more than one class a day.

There is no reason you couldn't use a standard camp stove in one of the university tents. It's 
been done for many other classes. The tents are much better ventilated than a travel trailer or 
even your home. Basic safety precaution to not have the tent walls blowing into the flame is 
called for, but that is really on the obvious side of safety considerations.

I've also seen several period cooking classes over firepit. This would be much less doable in 
the Pennsic University infrastructure. Those types of classes almost always seem to be in camp. 
Viscountess Aramanthra is known for running a couple different cook fire cooking classes. Others 
have been known to do similar and I'm sure that your approach would be different enough to have 
as much interest.

Having spent many years teaching in camp, I can say that you are much more likely to get an 
overwhelming turnout with a unique class in the Pennsic University area than you are in a camp. 
Especially the first time out. Once word gets out about your class for a couple years, you could 
pull a couple dozen or more people to a private camp but initially it tends to be less than it 
would otherwise be up top.

So, I guess what I am saying is that unless you really have too much camp infrastructure to 
bring up to the Pennsic University tents and have to have the class in a private camp, it will 
be much better attended and likely more fulfilling to have the class in the university tents.

Haraldr Bassi