Dandelion Vinegar
Violet tincture
and the others are the violet syrup I already made, which I've canned for later use.
Why? Preserving the Spring herbs for use later is the only way you'll have them later to use...... :)  During this time of year many things are more beneficial.  During later seasons some things are just downright inedible.  And some things just won't be there later.  This is how they used to do it.  I can see why!

I've been working away in my "Apothecary," creating oils and tinctures and syrups, much in the way they did in the olde days. I have been studying and researching how they used to make use of herbs and plants in the Medieval ages, and why.

Here's a post on how.

And here's some info on why.
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Each of these humors was believed to be associated with one of the four elements which, when combined in various proportions, make up all things:

The core treatise is the Hippocratic Aphorisms, the trunk from which sprang the theoretical and practical branches of the "Art of Medicine." Theory is represented, albeit sketchily, by anatomy, here primarily the conceptual "division of the body"; physiology, constructed around humors and temperaments; and nosology, with an inventory of diseases and their causes. Practical medicine figures more prominently in texts on diagnosis, particularly on reading pulses and urine; prognosis, in the Hippocratic tradition as well as by astrology and divination; and therapeutics, with several synopses for quick reference. Treatment branches out into dietary advice; plasters and other remedies, for afflictions ranging from migraine to snake bite; magical cures, remarkably few; herbals, glossaries of medicinal substances, and tables of weights and measures; and, ultimately, manual intervention by bloodletting and surgery.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medieval/medievalhome.html

So, I knew that candied orange peel was Period (I learned about that from our first feast, courtesy of Lady Alianore!), but I wasn't sure about lemon.  I saved the lemons from my weekend cheesemaking adventures in the hopes of practicing by making some anyway, but before starting I thought I'd research it.  Guess what?  Ta-da!  It appears that it is.

Elisen-Lebkuchen - a specialty from the medieval city of Nuremberg. Spice cookies made with nuts, candied orange and lemon peel and spices.
http://www.dagmarsdesserts.com/winterholiday2010.html
(I know, that's hardly a source, but the name was a good tidbit to get me started....)

The main ingredients of Lebkuchen are:
Honey, flour, sugar, eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, candied orange and lemon peel, marzipan, spices (cinnamon, ginger, aniseed, cloves, pimento, coriander, cardamom).

Although gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries, of all the European countries, Germany is the one with the longest and strongest tradition of baking flat, shaped gingerbreads known as Lebkuchen.

Lebkuchen were first baked in the city of Nuremberg in 1395 where the first Lebkuchen bakery was documented. During the Middle ages, the spices used for baking the gingerbread reached Nuremburg via the famous spice routes which were inspected by city-employed spice inspectors at the gates to the city.
http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/facts/lebkuchen.cfm

Now, how to make it.... here's a start...
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sweet-candied-orange-and-lemon-peel/Detail.aspx

But here's a medieval recipe! So it's orange and not lemon, but they're pretty much the same, right?

Le Menagie:
To Make Candied Orange Peel, divide the peel of one orange into five quarters and scrape with a knife to remove the white part inside, then put them to soak in good sweet water for nine days, and change the water every day, then cook them in good water just  till boiling, and when this happens, spread them on a cloth and let them get thoroughly dry, then put them in a pot with enough honey to cover them, and boil on a low fire and skim, and when you believe the honey is cooked, (to test if it is cooked, have some water in a bowl, and let drip into this one drop of the honey, and if it spread, it is not cooked; and if the drop of honey holds together in the water without spreading out it is cooked;) and then you must remove your orange peel, and make one layer with it, and sprinkle with ginger powder, then another layer, and sprinkle etc., and so on, and leave it a month or more then eat. 
http://mkcc.rhawn.com/MKCCfiles/SweetTreats.html


9 days, wow,  I'd better get started......


Keeping in line with trying to use all the resources, I found that I could use the middle part for some lemon marmalade!  Now of course starting from scratch those lemons would still have juice so I just added a sufficient amount of "fake" lemon juice for my amount of lemons.
http://homecooking.about.com/od/jellyrecipes/r/bljelly32.htm


Here they are, in progress.....

Medieval people made cheese.  And so will I!  I learned how in a class at the Diverse Pleasures event.  1/29/2011

First you need cheesecloth.  And I don't mean the stuff you find in the paint department. That's like GAUZE.  Look at the difference in food grade, finer woven cheesecloth:

Next you need milk.  Believe it or not, for these cheeses, you can purchase milk right off the grocery store shelf and it works just fine! No need to find anything special.

First you turn milk into yogurt.
Here's how my instructor taught us to do that:
Fill a thermos with the milk. Now pour that milk into a microwave safe bowl, and heat to a boil in the microwave to kill any wild microbes.
Cool to 122 F, the optimum temp for yogurt culture to grow. Stir in 2-3 heaping teaspoons full of active culture yogurt.
Put the mixture back in the thermos, cap tightly, and leave undisturbed for 8-14 hours.
Open the thermos, pour in a bowl, and you will find it thickened.  You just made Greek Yogurt!


Then turn the yogurt into yogurt cheese!  So easy and delicious. 
To make Labneh: Line a colander with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl to catch the whey you drain out.
Pour your thermos of yogurt into the cheesecloth. Let drain until it reaches the consistency of about cream cheese.
Check on it every 2 hours or so.
That's it!

You can eat it plain and add salt, or mix in add-ins of many varieties.... like garlic/herbs, jam or fruits.
You can use FINE grained sea salt for your cheese salt; it doesn't really matter since it's added after the fact.  Non-iodized salt is recommended, though. Regular table salt contains anti-caking agents that may interfere. The instructor recommended flake salt but I didn't like the crunchy texture of the larger grained sea salt in my cheese.  o_O

Save that whey to turn into ricotta cheese!

Next, lemon cheese.  Heat up the milk to 165F. Stir often to avoid scorching. Remove from heat, and add the juice of two lemons and stir for 5 seconds, then allow it to sit for 15 minutes.
You will see stringy white curd and greenish liquid whey. Line colander with cheesecloth, and pour mixture through. Tie up the cheesecloth and hang until it stops dripping.  (Drip into a bowl so you can reuse that whey!)

That's it! Salt to taste.  Keeps up to 1 week refrigerated.

Now make ricotta with all that leftover whey.

Since it's already filtered out, just cover and let sit for 12-24 hours to achieve sufficient acidity.
Next, heat the whey to about 179.6 degrees F (a white foam should start forming on the surface).
Keep heating until it is near boiling (203 F). Careful not to boil over. Remove from heat.
Now drain whey through cheesecloth. Once drained, hang cheesecloth and leave for several hours, overnight in refrigerator if needed, so the rest of the liquid will drip out.
That's it!

But wait, there's more!  There's one more thing you can do with that liquidy leftover whey....!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Great-Ricotta-Cheese-From-Whey/
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Gjetost/Gjetost.htm

You can make a Norwegian cheese from the whey after making ricotta called gjetost (from cow's milk) or mysost (from goat's milk). It's a buttery, cheddary flavored, caramel-colored cheese with a slight sweet/sour bite. It's used more like a spread, or can be used in sauces and soups, or to flavor veggies.

You cook down your whey over a several hours until it renders down to about 1/4 (or less) of the original volume.

After it begins to thicken (probably after several hours), watch it closely and stir regularly to prevent it from burning or sticking. Finally, once the consistency resembles fudge, remove from heat, stir or whisk? vigorously, then pour into a buttered/greased pan.
*Try an ice-cold container; rapid cooling is the key to making smooth cheese.  If desired consistency is not achieved, just re-heat and try the pouring/cooling process again.
Allow to cool.  Refrigerate until you use it.   Slice it thinly.  The Scandanavians serve it on Ryekrisp crackers.

We've been wanting to try this.  David sat down one day and watched tutorials online and made us a drawplate.  I got out some wire and he got some dowels and he has since learned how to weave it!

Greetings!

Well, I decided I should start a separate blog for my medieval adventures in the SCA.  Many of the activities within may fall under regular "categories" of my life like the herb gardening but most need their own place to be, so here they are. ;)

We started attending the local SCA group's meetings in November 2010. We attended our first event, Magna Faire in Dec. We very soon thereafter chose to join and become full fledged members!  We have since attended Knights Gambit, Diverse Pleasures, Gulf Wars XX, and Spring Coronation 2011. The more we do, the more excitement and passion for it we have.

I'll be sharing more of our adventures here, so stay tuned!

in 1630 when the Great Plague swept through Toulouse, France. Four thieves ransacked the city without contracting the disease; when finally caught, a judge decided to commute their death sentences, if they revealed the secret ingredients to the mysterious decoction that gave them immunity from the disease. The formula now known as the“The 4 Thieves Vinegar” was a combination of thyme, lavender, rosemary and sage steeped in vinegar. One hundred years later the disease struck again in Marseilles. Herbalists then added garlic as the fifth ingredient. In the 19th century a French distiller of vinegar patented the formula and marketed this elixir to nuns, priests and doctors. “Drink some on an empty stomach in the morning. In London around the same time, during the Black Death, it was suggested that a bunch of lavender fastened to each wrist would protect the wearer against the deadly disease.

This story could have some validity as the plague was transmitted by fleas, which lavender is known to repel.

http://www.complete-herbal.com/details/lavender.html

Syrups Sweetness disguises unpalatable herbs, especially good for children; honey and unrefined sugar are effective preservatives too and provide the additional benefit of having a soothing action. A great vehicle for cough mixtures and for sore throat relief. Pour an infusion or decoction into a pan.  Add honey or sugar. Gently heat, stirring constantly until all honey or sugar has dissolved and mixture has syrupy consistency. Remove from heat and cool. Pour cooled syrup into sterilized glass jars with a funnel. Seal, store in dark place. Don't use screw-topped bottles as they may explode; instead, use cork-stoppered jars.

So from this I have devised that a syrup is made by combining an infusion or decoction with other ingredients. This means I'd need to make either an infusion or a decoction.  However a decoction is best used for more stubborn things like roots, bark, twigs, and berries, whereas an infusion is a way to process the aerial parts of a plant, which these flowers are, so an infusion it is.
 

Infusion A simple way to prepare the more delicate aerial parts of plants, especially leaves and flowers. Place herb in strainer.  Fill cup with freshly boiled water.  Put strainer in cup, cover, and leave for 5-10 minutes before removing strainer.  Drink hot or cold.

Before putting in the flowers, though, of course I rinsed them first to ensure no undesired add-ins made it into my infusion! Dirt, other plant leaves, and tiny insects may hitch a ride onto your plants.  The evidence of them is left behind in the bowl, as you can see after you’ve washed the flowers sufficiently.

From the Recipe: “Place violet petal in a deep bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Weigh down with a heavy dish to keep them submerged. Place the bowl in a draft-free place at room temperature for 24 hours.“



Next, I stuffed my washed flowers into tea strainers, boiled the water, and dropped it all into the bowl. 

I covered the bowl and left it, as it says, overnight. 

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Culinary:

Serve with ice water or club soda for a tasty beverage.