The Meditteranean DYE it

I’m doing a workshop on natural dyes at an event my new Tuatha (roughly equivalent to a Village) is running at the end of the month. I’ve been refreshing my knowledge, doing a bit of online shopping and spending a couple of evenings doing some new research with my laptop while the TV is on…

Fennel in Bartolomeo Scappi

I was doing the staring out the kitchen window, not really thinking about anything, waiting for the kettle to finish boiling and vaguely admiring my mini herb bed. The fennel went a bit more mad than I was expecting – which is good to know for my next garden – and I was admiring the…

Adventures in castle camping and camp cooking

Art and I recently (June bank holiday weekend) went along to Strawberry Raid at Sigginstown Castle, Tacumshane Co. Wexford, hosted by Liz and Gordon – who are doing the incredible work at the castle itself (and Dun in Mara generally) – and Agnes Boncuer and her event team. To say it was fantastic is an…

More Scappi and foraged things..

It is hot, far too hot, but I managed anyway to go outside and see some things to research and take photographs of to go along with a very short post about a few recipes in the Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi that feature ingredients we don’t readily find in shops in our modern age but…

Mushrooms in The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi

There are times when my job in IT gets …busy.. and I contemplate other things I could be doing. It has become an especially strong feature of pandemic life now that I spend so much of my time in the one place in front of the same screens I worry I am taking root. The…

No, really, just no..

Things I did not need in my life – A recipe for cooking cat “123. ROAST CAT (98) AS YOU WISH TO EAT IT” from Ruperto de Nola’s “Libre del Coch” I’ll spare you the gorey details. It says not to eat the brains “for they say that eating the brains will cause him who…

A little paradise at Champions of Lough Devnaree…

And besides all this (proceeded Socrates), nowhere among the various countries which he inhabits or visits does he fail to make it his first care that there shall be orchards and gardens, parks and “paradises,” as they are called, full of all fair and noble products which the earth brings forth; and within these chiefly…

The continuing saga of Art and Sugar

    The plan for today was that we would go to Kilkenny for a Household day and we were really, REALLY looking forward to it.  Tuathal and I were especially looking forward to getting some serious archery practice in, I had some perg I wanted to get to Casssandra and maybe doing a little…

Art and a little bit of medieval sweetness.

Art had big plans for Champions of the Court of Love, he intended making *all the sweets in the world* and having a stand at the event.  Art is 11.  His mother was event stewarding.  We compromised on a smaller project after he decided to finally get stuck in, and he created a small selection…

Another lunch menu

First a little reminder to myself.  An iPad is a wonderful thing, but when you have to leave it on the windowsill on the other side of the kitchen for connectivity etc, and you are relying on swipe to unlock each time and calling up the web to access your recipes you will begin to…

Champions of Lough Devnaree (and some other bits and pieces)

I know, I know, I have a lot of catching up to do.  I will have posts on cuttlefish metal casting and dyeing with weld, madder, logwood, almond skins and elderberries shortly, but I need to organise a few mundane life things first.  Oh, and go to Autumn Crown Tourney in Caerphilly Castle, Wales this weekend…

Small treats for Medieval demos

I have properly discovered what a wonderful resource Stefan’s Florilegium is. (http://www.florilegium.org/) It’s kind of the default go to web site for useful stuff about skills you might want to know about in the SCA, and you tend to hear about it early on. In the words of THLord Stefan li Rous (Mark S. Harris)…