As the weather turns colder ... er, wait, that hasn't happened yet ... but we're sure it will ... we send you our wishes for a warm, safe winter season.

in caravans so that none has to face the winter dangers alone. Our wagons are small and space for passengers is very limited, however, if you wish to attend but have no means of travel, let us know and we will do our best to assist in finding you a ride.The following is a list of events that we are planning to attend in the next few months. Please join with us at these events and show the world that our Barony is not afraid of cold or snow or ice or ... I'm scaring myself so I'll stop there.

Dec 8 Kris Kinder in Forgotten Sea -As fine a winter shopping event as is to be found anywhere in the Known World. This is the place to acquire raw materials for your winter A&S projects or to buy fine items crafted by artisans of our Kingdom.

Dec 29 Yule Court in our own fine Barony - This is always one of the best events of the year. We get to gather together as a Barony in this season of sharing and good will. This years event sounds like it will be as good as any we have had.

Jan 11-13 Twelfth Night in the Barony of Nordskogen, Northshield - The event is held in a site similar to Camp Sunnyside with cabins for sleeping. The also have a meal plan for all three days. They list many fine activities for A & S as well as fighting to include "snowy projectiles". We are looking forward to this event and are willing to share a cabin with any who would like to go.

Jan 19 Crown Tournament ... Kingdom Calendar and Mews still list this as site to be announced. As always, this event will have good attendance and is worth going to. Be the first in your Barony to know who the next King will be.

Jan 26 Winter War Maneuvers in Mag Mor - While this event is primarily a fighting event, many non-fighters attend as well for a fine event in an indoor arena. Come help the Calontir Army prepare for the Estrella War.

Those are our plans as of this time. We encourage everyone to attend as many of these events, or others, that they can during the winter months.

One other reminder, please send us your award recommendations. We would like to have many awards to present at Yule Court and cannot do so without your help.

In Service to Kingdom and Barony,

The following people have recently had names and/or devices passed at the laurel level.

Donnchad na Atholl — NAME - Name Passed as Donnchad Atholl

Jacquemette de Chaponay - NAME & DEVICE - Name Passed, Device Passed (Laurel comment: Nice armory!)

Jacqueline de Meux - NAME & DEVICE - Name Passed,

Device Returned because of conflict

Liadan ingen Conomala - NAME CHANGE - Name Passed as Liadan ingen Chonamail, Former name is released

Loran the Bold — NAME - Name Passed

Congratulations!

Greetings from His Excellencies.

As Winter winds down, the War Season will heat up.

Feb 13-18 Estella War XVIII in Atenvelt - While neither of us has attended this event, from everything we hear, this is a great war to attend. It will be our first Estrella so we'd like to encourage any others who have not been there yet, to make it a first with us. We will riding on the Kingdom wagon and look forward to that portion of the trip also.

Mar 12-17 Gulf Wars XI in Meridies -This is fine war with unique fighting in a wooden castle. The weather, if it doesn't rain again and they cancel the war, is warm and a good break from the winter here. The drive, while long, is not a difficult one. Her Excellency would especially like to encourage many of you to attend this event. She will not be attending the war and she seems to think that the Barony's Seneschal, Murdoch, and I will need many members of the Barony there to assist us. We believe that we will be fine but for some reason, Her Excellency thinks we may need your assistance.

Now is the time to plan to attend. I hope you can join me.

Greeting and thanks to all who helped with the Kumihimo project at the last A&S night.  I had meant to send around a sign-up sheet, so if you helped with the braiding, please be sure to let me know so I can put your name on the list.  As a reminder, December A&S will be making beaded jewelry for the largesse project.  Jacqueline de Meux will be our guide.  January will be for finishing up any largesse that isn't done yet, and I hope we can have all the items on display for our January court.  The largesse will be donated to the Crown in time for Lillies. 

If anyone has ideas for A&S nights, please let me know.  Thanks again.

Moniczka Poznanska
Minister of Arts & Sciences

I want to thank all who have donated garb to Gold Key. There are many of you and it is greatly appreciated.

Anyone who loaned garb for the phot booth at Salisbury Faire, and want it back, please write a discription of what you loaned and I will do my best to get it back to you.

In Service

Please remember Yule Court is December 29th, at the new Jester Park Lodge.  I have been to visit the site, and it is really impressive.  There is a large kitchen at the lodge for those who would like to cook on site, but if you do, please let me know ahead of time so I can coordinate all the cooks.  There are no cooking or serving utensils, we will need to provide our own. 

The competitions include:   Oldest Unfinished A&S Project, and Tales Out of Coeur d'Ennui's Past.  Winners will be chosen by populace vote.  There will be one mystery competition at the event, no preparation is required, details available at site.  Even though the feast is potluck, please let me know what you are planning on bringing, I don't think anyone would enjoy having 15 bowls of potato salad.  Or is that potatoe salad? Please join us for a day of Yuletide fun!

Moniczka

by Kateryn de Devlin

© 2001 Debra Hense

Whatever scale you are working on you can never do a perfect reproduction of a period meal--or anything else. Twenty years ago, doing a feast where all of the recipes were from period cookbooks represented a large improvement on the SCA state of the art as it existed then. Ten years ago, doing a feast where all of the recipes were from a single period cuisine, with a menu based on perod menus, represented a large improvement on the then SCA state of the art. Currently, doing a feast with serious attention given to all available information about how things were cooked (not just the information in the recipe itself but whatever else can be found) and served, and the use of the closest thing to period varieties available, is a large step forward.

The objective isn't "perfect." It's "better."

By Kateryn de Develyn

Part II

Mucchera/Maderia

The finest quality of loaf sugar produced at the time. It was double-refined, and was manufactured in small pyramid-shaped loaves weighing about a pound.

Muscovado

Muscovado is sugar which is more refined, but still retains some molasses. The derivation of the word is confusing. It is either Portuguese or Spanish. The Portuguese derivation would mean "less refined" or "impure". The Spanish derivation would mean "more refined." It was made in large loaves of up to seven pounds, and rounded at the top, and was popular among dealers, as it was easily broken into saleable quantities.

Panella Dolce

Mexican sugar in the form of a sort of pig ingot, called a panella dolce. It's a loaf of brown sugar, made more or less by boiling sugar cane sap into a thick brown syrup, and poured into a mold to solidify.

Powdered

Modern powdered sugar generally contains corn starch to make the sugar flow better and eliminate clumping. It is also ground exceedingly fine, much finer than probably could have been achieved with forceful grinding in a mortar and with sieving (searcing) through silk, fine linen, lawn, etc. There are period references to "powdered sugar" but research indicates that "powdered" referred to the crystals and small bits that fell off the cone, not to something as finely ground as we are accustomed to.

Raspings

Sugar raspings are gratings from a big lump or loaf of sugar. Granulated sugar makes a decent substitute, but if you can find a big chunk of light (in color and flavor) sugar, you'll need to grate it with the smallest side of a box grater, or a nutmeg grater, or a file or rasp, hence the name.

Sugar Crystal

The finest came from Cyprus and others of varying sized grains from Rhodes, Syria and Alexandria. The crystal, or, as it was sometimes called, "powdered sugar", was made from disintegrated loaves, and was often used to fill the spaces in the chests into which the loaves were packed for transport.

Treacle

Treacle (or spelled triacle closer to period), which is in consistency honey-like and is a cane or beet sugar refinement by-product. It is more 'treated' than molasses, though, and is not sulphured. Molasses will do as a replacement, but it's not precisely the same. It was used primarily in period by apothecaries, who used it to sweeten medicinal mixtures.

Turbinado

Turbinadois sometimes sold as 'raw sugar'. It has a larger crystal than the more processed sugars and have a slight molasses taste. Raw sugar in the market is a similar end product, but is usually made by a different process.

White

The Arabic cookbooks often call for white sugar, as well as specifying the use of raw "sweet cane". The latter seems to have been common enough that one could make a subtlety that looked like sweet cane but wasn't, and have it recognized. Receipts for sugar- based illusion foods specify 'the whitest and best' sugar to make simulated plates and glassware from what we would now call gum paste. These recipes clearly expect that the sugar is "white". In late period, it came in cones like modern piloncillo, perhaps a bit larger.

© 2001 Debra Hense

At one of the sparsely attended late summer practices, a few of us talked about the slow season. We started by disagreeing about when the slow season falls. Is it summer, when it's tempting to laze around in the summer heat at Lions Park? Or is it the winter, when short days and a restricted fighting site gives you the excuse to give it a rest until spring? We couldn’t agree.

Fighters! Here's a few things to occupy yourself during the long nights to come…

• Look after your leather components. You sweat in it all summer, then zip it up in a closed bag. You might as well be keeping a big Petri dish in your garage. Liberal use of mink oil and spray Lysol will save you a rude surprise at 12^th Night.
• Complete your device. The rest of us are tired of looking at that bug-ugly plywood shield blank. We are blessed with an industrious herald. Seek her out, and give yourself some identity. It's fun, cheap, and a great exercise of personal vanity. And come Salisbury Fair next, you'll get to hear something from the crowd besides "Green Guy! Go, Green Guy!"
• Do something about those shoes. Did you know that unadorned gym shoes are actually forbidden from the lists by kingdom law? Early period fighters, legionary shoes or gilly brogs are easy to cut out, and require minimal sewing. Late period? Surplus East German jackboots are probably still running around out there. At least put together leather or canvas coverups-- it's not that much work.
• Retape weapons. spare yourself some time at your next inspection, and tape over those split striking edges. A little time and tape will make your swords look better and last longer.

© 2001 Jonathan Greising

Please submit your artwork or articles before the respective month’s A&S night to Tatiana (tatianad1@juno.com). Question or corrections: Call Tatiana at 264-1364