Consorts, books and crosses

I decided to make Ynigo a favor as he was fighting for me. He loves the cross, which is a cross of Santiago, I think. I made the tiny book out of elephant poo paper. I have tried to make paper, but I have been largely unsuccessful.  It is a pretty tough process and the only real medieval mention is a bamboo type from China.

I cut small sheets of the poo paper into pages, and bound 8 or so together at a time. I made several packets and then cut a leather cover. I tooled the cover and painted the cross in gold acrylic paint.  I then dyed the cover. After it all dried a few days, I softened it using Huberd's Shoe Grease.  I let that sit for a few more days until it was all absorbed. In the meantime, I finger braided a cord so he could wear it on his belt.  It doesn't show in the picture, but I used a tiny coprolite (dinosaur poo) bead as a button closure. I made a loop by using a length of silk to make a loop and I button hole stitched around that.

I put the whole thing together by sewing the packets into the leather cover.  Yay for my first book.

One day, my Laurel and I went to Santa Cruz. We are nutso hippies and like to clean up the beach.  So, we cleaned the beach and went to find a spot to wash our hands.  Then this happened: 

One of the nice things about living in a vineyard in Napa Valley is that you get to make wine from gleaning the grapes.  

 Fall mornings are either foggy and cold, or extremely hot. After the first frost, the leaves start turning the most gorgeous colors of red and gold. Seasons do change here and the fall colors are magnificent.

 The winery allowed us to go in and gather a few grapes last year.  I used my family's old prune boxes to measure out how many lugs we would need to put together a small batch for the carboys.




I have a small press I bought so we can press pears and apples.  I love the thing and it is great for all sorts of lovely food products.  Grape fermentation isn't really a bodily fluid of any sort, so this really doesn't apply to me in any way, except that wine really goes with cheese!

My friend Fritz and I decided to make wine a few years ago, and these are the pictures.  I got out the press, but we found one of the locks was missing for the transmission. Crapity craps!  Mr Fritz and I decided we could work around that. He said two old Italians should be able to get around it.  I didn't want to use our feet.

 Fritz has massive hands. He decides to crush the grapes with his hands.  Fritz is bad ass.  Here is some juice! It took a while.  He works faster if you talk about people he needs to kill.

Here he is, thinking about people he wants dead.  He does not like to be interrupted when he is squishing the heads of people he wants dead.  I like it.

We squished about 70 pounds of grapes and got almost a carboy full. I would not do this by hand again because you can see how much we lost.  I also was really disappointed in the way the wine turned out. It continued a slow fermentation because we didn't use sulfides to kill off the yeast when the wine was perfect.  I did like our labels!! 

Pill Box Hats.

My very first 12th Night, I wore a small, white pillbox hat. The hat was perched on top of my head, as I had seen it in an illumination.  I had made a veil to go under it, and a very fancy green and tapestry dress with angel type sleeves.  I was very proud of my outfit, as I had spent hours on it and had sewn it with a broken hand.

I was asked constantly about the hat.  Many people were sweet and receptive.  However, there were a few who were insistent that the pillbox hat was not a medieval hat.  I was surprised at those who denied the hat styles' existence.  There are dozens of examples of the pill box hat.  It seems to have been used by both men and women, depending on the time period. It is a nice hat for cooler weather. I think it functioned similar to a beanie hat would today. It was warm, and close fitting. It did not fly off in high winds. The hat does not shield a person from the sun or snow glare.

Here is an example of a hat from the Groninger Museum. It was one of the two hats found at Leens. The other has a cute bill on it.  This hat is made of straight and whip stitches and decorated with an interlacing stitch similar to the herringbone stitch. It appears that fancy stitching was a common feature of these hats. The piece has a split top, as many of the pillbox hats seem to have. If they do not have a top seam, they seem to have a false seam at the top. I think this was probably a decorative element, though I tend to make my hats out of scraps so I find it an easy hat style to piece together. If you are a beginner at sewing, hats are a fun way to start. 

I have recently decided to recreate this hat to the best of my ability.  I did an earlier hat from the collection taken by Poul Nørlund and listed as Museum No. D10610.  I made it to exactly the dimensions that were in Else Østergård's book, Woven Into the Earth; Textiles from Norse Greenland. Unfortunately, I did not have a proper twill so I used a commercial wool and washed it in hot water until it had the appearance of boiled wool.

I expected the hat to be a very small size, because I have grown up with the idea that medieval people are somehow very small in comparison to modern humans. I finished the hat and realized it was precisely the right size for my friend Greg.  He has a small noggin, and I thought it would fit him.  I have since measured him for other clothing. It was a good reminder for me that they were not that different in size.  Greg's skull was about the same size as the skull of one of the men found in Herjolfsnes.  Greg benefits from a good diet that is higher in protein and edible fats, so he probably has a greater muscle mass and we might infer Greg is taller. His counterpart lived a subsistence lifestyle, but it is likely he had good nutrition in his early years.  This has been reflected in my earlier paleobotany research on the diets of similar people in York and Gottland. I hope to update that information and republish it in the blog at a later date.  It is a good reminder for me to curb my assumptions.

The next reproduction I decided to work on was the Leems hat.  I felt the Groninger Museum hat was well covered by The Journal of Archeology of the Low Countries in its article Chrystel R. Brandenburgh's excellent article,  Early medieval textile remains from settlements in the Netherlands. An evaluation of textile production. The information she presented was incredibly clear.
 I was unprepared to accurately recreate the original hat, because I did not have a diamond twill and I am not a weaver. I could practice the construction of the cap, and that is what I decided to do. I cut the pattern and whip stitched the cap together. I turned under and a blanket stitched the edges in place. I then ran a simple running stitch in a coordinating thread around the bottom. I have been practicing the interlocking herringbone around the top.  My stitch work is poor, but the hat is spiffy and fun. It is a wonderful style and I look forward to adding it to my wardrobe.

The hats seem to be found more in male identified graves than in female, though there are a lot of examples of pillbox type hats in illuminations. I plan on doing more pillbox hats in the future.

How long as has been since I posted?  More than 5 years!  I am bad about blogging. I have decided to put up several posts with a progression of projects.  I am constantly busy making things, so it is not surprising I have had little time to update the blog.

I have been studying cheeses as part of my bodily fluids research. I have a small herd of dairy goats.  They have been a constant source of amusement and excitement. I have five does at this time. I am going to start with baby pictures of the kids.

This is my handsome billy goat Donatello. He is our herd sire. He was chosen because he is well mannered and large.  I do keep the horns on my goats. This is because we live in an area that is impacted heavily by aggressive coyotes.  The goats need to be able to defend themselves.

Mead

Mead!  It is what is for breakfast!  I started with ....







BEES?  Yes, start with bees. Here is a drone. He has huge eyes and no stinger.









Here is the queen. She is sable and gorgeous.  See how much bigger she is? She doesn't lose her stinger if she stings you.








This is where you dump the bees in the hive.

Here are the hives and the girls are working!

Cordials, Walnuts, Syrups, Pastes and Mustard

I am sorry about the lack of pictures. I have pictures but I haven't got the printer set up again and that is one way I scan photos. In fact, it is the best way. I will put some in later.

I have been learning to work with green walnuts. I threw a note out there on the kingdom list and a few weeks later, Mistress Juana answered it with some suggestions. It reminded me on just the right day to look for green walnuts. They were on my two trees and they were about the size of a ping pong ball. I did some research on green walnuts and it started with http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/20/WIG346O0371.DTL

The article is a modern food article, but I could not help feeling that there was something medieval about it. I am still looking for information stating that any of the three recipes is medieval. Orahovac may be, as that is an area in Croatia that means 'walnut'. So far, nothing though.I made the Orahovac and Noccino just the way they are in the article. I have the Vin de Noix waiting. 40 days! Anyhow, if anyone has information on these being known in period, please drop me a line.

What I did find that was period was a mention of pickled walnuts and green walnut paste in Perry's translation of An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th century.

Green Walnut Paste

Take a ratl of green walnuts and pierce them well with an iron skewer, then steep them in water for three days; take them out of the water and for each ratl take three of honey, cleaned of its foam, after cooking the nuts a little. Take them from the water and return them to the honey, and cook them until they take the form of a paste. Season with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, three quarters of an ûqiya for each ratl, and eat it after meals. Its benefits: it excites the appetite and digests foods, heats the kidneys, and increases urine. http://daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian10.htm#Heading520

The first thing I did was see that this is a basic one part to three parts recipe. A ratl is roughly a pound and an ûqiya is one twelfth of a pound.

Green Walnut Paste Redaction
1 lbs of green walnuts
3 lbs of honey, clarified
1 ounce of spice blend

Using rubber gloves to protect your hands from stains, pierce the nuts all over with a skewer. Soak the walnuts in water for 3 days. Boil the nuts in their own water for about 45 minutes. In a separate pot, bring the honey to a strong simmer and skim it. Stir the spices into the honey. Strain the walnuts and add them to honey. Simmer this until the mixture becomes reduced and gooey. I reduced it by 3/4 and took it to the soft ball stage on my candy thermometer.

An ounce of cinnamon is about 4 and a half tablespoons. Cloves have about the same weight. I decided to fool around with the spices a bit. The recipe calls for cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. This could be a pretty deadly combination if you tried something like equal parts. Cloves have an exceptionally strong flavor so I decided to take a look at spices for similar things that may not be period, but are from that area. The older the better. There was a trend to using a smaller portion of cloves to the other spices. I didn't see anything that called for equal parts of cinnamon, clove and ginger. I was also going to use fresh ginger for this. I think you can make the case for dry or fresh ginger. In my case, I had fresh ginger that needed to be use and I love fresh ginger. I used 3/4 ounce of fresh ginger, which was about a tablespoon and a half. Then I used 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of cloves.

I have no clue if I did this right. I did two variations. One, I left the walnuts whole and one I put through the food processor. I did this because of the carrot paste recipe. I also love the idea of serving someone black gunk and then calling it something that is good for increasing urine. Plus, it is green walnuts. How cool is that?? I am waiting for the whole ones to firm up but the paste ones taste pretty good.

Pickled walnuts: I used http://www.davidgregory.org/pickled_walnuts.htm to start my recipe. Most of the recipes were similar, and I like the brining of the walnuts. Those are sitting in a jar, brining themselves away.

Cordials: When it came to cordials and syrups I went nuts. I was seriously considering chopping down my lemon tree. I love my lemon tree. I decided not to chop it down just now, but I was pushing to get all the lemons off. I made 14 quarts of lemon drop and 14 of limoncella.

Syrups: Here was a place where I had fun. I made three from Perry's Andalusian translation and one of my own device.

Syrup of Simple Sikanjabîn (Oxymel)

Take a ratl of strong vinegar and mix it with two ratls of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya of this with three of hot water when fasting: it is beneficial for fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since sikanjabîn syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers: make it with six ûqiyas of sour vinegar for a ratl of honey and it is admirable.
...[gap: top third of this page has been cut off]...
... and a ratl of sugar; cook all this until it takes the consistency of syrup. Its benefit is to relax the bowels and cut the thirst and vomiting, and it is beneficial in bilious fevers http://daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian10.htm#Heading497

This is a pretty simple syrup. I had some old vine zinfindel port vinegar. Old Vine Zinfindel ports are all the rage, or were about 5 years ago. I would imagine (due to the pretty shoddy labels) that someone botched a large batch of wine. The vinegar is good, but not outstanding as it should be. I have a Praeger port vinegar that is fabulous. I didn't mind devoting my very nice other brand vinegar to making this, but not my Praeger. I measured the vinegar and found I had 3 cups. I set aside one cup for my mustard project and set up two separate pots. In the first pot I put 1 cup of the vinegar and 2 cups of sugar. I did the same thing with the other pot. Then I picked about six handfuls of mint. (I pulled it up because it was crowding my daisies.) I cleaned the mint and put it in the boiling syrup for about 3-4 minutes. Then I strained the syrup into a canning jar. The minty version is rich but not overwhelmingly minty. It also does not have the slightly bitter or grassy aftertaste of overcooked mint.
I got caught up in the cookbook and decided to make the tamarind, lemon and carrot syrups. I really wanted to make violet syrup, but I have no violets. I got some today and planted them in the front yard.

Syrup of Lemon

Take lemon, after peeling its outer skin, press it and take a ratl of juice, and add as much of sugar. Cook it until it takes the form of a syrup. Its advantages are for the heat of bile; it cuts the thirst and binds the bowels.
My version:
4 cups of juice from lemon flesh only
8 cups of sugar.
Bring slowly to a boil and keep it there until it turns to a syrup. Over cooking it will turn it to jelly.

I took my lemons and peeled them with a vegetable peeler. Then I cut off the pith. I did this so I would have lemon peel for the limoncella. The pith is bitter, so it should be discarded. This recipe I interpreted literally. I pressed the juice out of the flesh and tried it in comparison to the juice of a lemon from an unpeeled half of a lemon. I think it does make a slight difference, if you are very sensitive to the taste. There is a hint of the oil in rind on juice and I don't think it was as sweet. Anton and Collect came over and tried it and they thought it was a lot like non-alcoholic Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Syrup of Carrots

Take four ratls of carrots, after removing the fibers [lit. "nerves"] that are in the centers, and cook them in water to cover until their substance comes out. Then take the clear part of it and add it to three ratls of honey, cleaned of its foam. The bag: ...[about three words missing]... an ûqiya of cubebs, two ûqiyas each of ginger and long pepper, and half an ûqiya of cinnamon and flower of cloves. Cook until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya of this with three of hot water: it is beneficial in the lack of urine, increases desire, and dissolves phlegm, heats the kidneys admirably, and likewise the other parts of the body, God willing.

Carrot Syrup

4lbs carrots, sliced
3lbs honey
1 tablespoons cubebs
3 tablespoons ginger
2 tablespoons long pepper
1 tablespoon cinnamon
10 cloves

I boiled the carrots in water that covered them by about an inch. I simmered it for an hour or until the carrots barely could hold their shape.

I wanted my liquid to be tinted a little, but very carrot flavored. I also used stronger flavored white and red carrots. This choice was made because even though Persian farming techniques which would have produced a sweeter carrot through irrigation, I felt that the stronger flavored carrots were necessary. The sweet, coreless carrots in grocery stores in the United States are a recent development. Coring carrots was done in the late 1970s in some recipes. Plus, I had some! I had all this stuff, well some of it.

I cut back on the spices a lot. I didn't have enough of everything. If I had, it would be 1.4 ounces of cubeb, 3 ounces of ginger, 3 ounces of long pepper, 3/4 ounce of cloves, 3/4 ounce of cinnamon. Once I saw I didn't have all the spices in that quantity, I decided to wing it. I boiled everything together, brought it to the syrup stage and then strained and bottled it. It is a milder spice, but very good.

Syrup of Tamarind:
Take a ratl of tamarind and steep in five ratls of water, throw away the dregs immediately and add the clarified water to a ratl of sugar. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink two ûqiyas of it in three of cold water. It is beneficial in jaundice, and takes it away easily; it cuts bilious vomit and thirst, awakens the appetite to eat, and takes the bitterness of food out of the mouth.

I had 4 ounces of tamarind. I soaked it in 20 ounces of water in the sun. Then I broke it up with my fingers. That may have been a mistake. The water became about the color of tamarind soda, so I thought it might be about time to drain it. I strained it several times and threw away the pulp. I then measured the liquid and found I had about 18 ounces of water. I added 4 ounces of sugar and simmered it until it became a syrup. The results were pretty to look at but utterly disgusting to taste. It was exceptionally bitter. Four tasters rejected it. I think I am going to adjust the liquid to the sugar ratio and cook it less time. I will also experiment with steeping time. Tamarind syrup in the Philippino story is tasty.

Is it already more than five years?

It has been! In fact, it has been more like 7 years of the study of poo. I still feel entirely overwhelmed by the subject field. There is still so much to learn.

I taught for the first time in 2 years. The course went well, but I don't think it was the best one I have done. I keep getting chemists and laurels in there and they have loads of precious clues. You know, that little hint of another place to look up information? I feel really good about removing the Victorianisms from the general information. I am still torn as to what to do with the handouts. I really like having the pictures in there and I hope to continue this, but I really need to find a way to cover all of the things I want to discuss and give more than a mere outline. I adore Crystals Non-Alcoholic brewing class handout but in that format I had over 42 pages (and it was incredibly messy.)

I am going to start revamping previous notes and experiments, and see if I can come up with a new way to cover everything I want to deal with in the classes.

Could it be?

Vigdis says she has a baggie of camel poo in her freezer for me. I had no idea merely mentioning my camel poo issues to her would result in actually procuring a sample of it. I am getting it at Purg. I am so excited. I can finally work out the resist for glass beads. This will go perfectly with my brand new coprolites and coprolite beads I got for my birthday.

My cousin Jen B got me a coprolite for my birthday. I am going to have it set as a necklace with coprolite beads. I think I am going to use the beads made with camel poo as accents. That is if my experiments work.

OHMIGAWD, I AM A HOMEOWNER!!!!

In a fit of insanity during Ducal Prize, I bid on a lot of stuff. I lost my mind and bid on a medieval pavillion. It is used and I got it for a very good price. I already have a buyer for it if I want to sell. It was supposedly formerly owned by William of Houghton and Sir Maythen. I went and searched through the West Kingdom History site to see if there were pictures of it, but I haven't found any. I will take a picture at the next camping event.

To go with this pavillion, I need furniture. I have a nice teak chair that suits, so I take that now. My tent is pretty big, so I will need lots of things. Bjorne and Bruce have been a huge help. Bruce drove all the way to my house to show me how to put a new blade on my band saw. Bjorne taught me how to make a bed and how to use power tools. I can totally use a router now. I am fabulous with the drill press.

Bruce held a class on building boxes that was really interesting. I learned a lot about mass production and how it can ease your production times. Unfortunately, the plans were changed last minute and this change threw off the plan for my box bottom. But no worries! Bjorne and I can finish the box because I have wood left over from MY NEW BED!


Bjorne built a bed for his daughter and one for he and his wife. I love Bjorne's plans. Look at the wagon/cradle when you get a chance. It is the best kid container ever! I took Bjorne up on his offer to help me learn how to make a bed. I explained that I didn't know how to use all my power tools and I wanted a bed. Bjorne was a good teacher. He is efficient, which I like in a teacher.

We decided to do this plan that he has on his website:
http://hometown.aol.com/rbull41/queenbed/queen_size_bed.htm

The plans are fairly easy to follow and it goes together fairly easily. It is a little heavy as it is a full plank bed instead of a rope bed. Essentially, three trips from the car instead of two for a rope bed, or one for my bedroll. It packs up fairly small compared to the medieval pavillion. I will take pictures of how small it packs. Right now, everything is apart for the final sanding and staining. I will use a commercial product rather that a dog poo finish. I would need a dog to get enough poo to stain a bed.