What is the SCA? I almost like to call it a club. A Medieval club. It's a club that gets together once a week to hold regular meetings and conducts regular group business.

But really, it's more than that. You might also consider it to be a living historical society. That's really a lot closer. But, I think of it as even more than that. We are not just portraying history like some museum staff who is dressing the part, talking the talk, and acting out the activities that the actual time period would have been participating in.

I consider the SCA to be a more encompassing society. After all, it's a part of the very name itself: the Society for Creative Anachronism. This society focuses a lot of time and effort on research and re-creation, of course. Many people refer to the SCA as a game we play, when participating in SCA activities. It's because we set time aside for events where we completely immerse ourselves in the lifestyle. The Creative part comes in from how we weave the past into the present. That's what puts the Anachronism in the society: it's a time that's out of place, because we completely insert the best parts of the past right here into modern times! ;)

The Royalty among our ranks hold court sessions at our events where folks are acknowledged with awards and recognition for their contributions to the society. Classes are taught on a variety of topics, and battle tournaments are held where fighters fight in medieval fashion both for recreation and to fight for the Crown position. A feast fashioned after what any one of the many medieval era localities would have presented are enjoyed at the end of the events. All of this takes place while wearing period-specific attire, of course, including the battle gear on the fighting fields.

But don't fear: the battle is safe. You won't see the heavy fighters wielding real metal swords at you! We aim to re-create the battle, but not the actual slaying of opponents. Rattan wood is used instead so that fighters can still land what would have been the killing blow without yielding the same results! Rapier fighters use safety guards on the end of their pointed weapons to prevent running their opponents through. And thrown weapon and archer participants only launch their projectiles at still targets. Of course, everyone wears proper protection while doing these things. Fighters must also be inspected and qualified before they can fight.

During Wars, archers actually do get the capability of assailing the opposing side with arrows, but they are designed once again for safety. We'd like to keep each other around to have fun with again later, after all!  Yes, that's right: we also re-enact battles. You may have previously seen or heard of civil war re-enactors. This is somewhat similar, but of course instead is medieval war. We do not aim to duplicate wars of the past, per say, but rather instead, to re-create the style and maneuvers that would have been used.

But it's not all about fighting, even if that is a big area of interest, particularly to, but not exclusively to, the guys! There are as many activities to get into as you could find the time to participate in. You can learn about ways to make things and do all sorts of interesting things by attending classes or from talking to members of such groups (guilds), or perhaps from the internet. (One excellent source of topics is Stefan's Florilegium where emails about many things are archived.) http://www.florilegium.org/

One of the other ways we live the history is by creating a Persona to "play" as. Some people prefer to keep this at a very simple level, while others delve into it far deeper. It's up to each individual how they choose to go about it, of course. The main thing that is required is to dress appropriately for events, always making an attempt to wear medieval clothing and not mundane. When at large events like wars you may find more specific rules in areas such as campgrounds who will only place true period (in appearance) tents around the front instead of "mundane" ones which are hidden in the middle.

One of the fun parts of persona in the SCA is heraldry. Each person is encouraged to come up with a medieval name and device which is used to identify themself throughout the society. A person might decide to model some or all of their medieval attire and/or hobbies based on when the persona they've created would actually have existed in time. For example, "what would this woman of early Welsh origin have done in her life? What crafts can I do that would be things maybe she would have done? What clothing would she have worn?" Those are a few things I might look at when going this route. Or, I might just decide to study whatever interests me right now, not necessarily creating a full persona to follow, only using the name. It's really up to you how you "play" the "game" and whatever you find appealing. But I will say that it's highly encouraged to at least come up with a "period" name to go by. If you don't, you might find yourself tagged with a funny name based on some wacky event that occurs! ;)

Of course it is not ever required to pay in order to participate with the SCA; coming to meetings and fighter practices is free of cost. There are costs for each event (the calendar for each Kingdom's events can be found on each Kingdom's website -- such as Meridies, right here http://www.meridies.org ). There is an annual membership fee which may be registered in order to receive reduced cost to events and to participate in a few additional things. But spectators are always welcome, of course! In fact we frequently provide Demonstrations to share our interests with others who might find participation to be of interest as well.
Because the SCA has become so large, it is broken down into regions. Please click here for an excellent Known World map! You can see that the SCA is world-wide.
This, for example, is a map of my kingdom, broken down into the various Shires and Baronies and such located within this Kingdom. But you can find your local group here.
This is a rendition of that Meridies kingdom map that I overlaid with the symbol for each group, based on an existing map:






















This is a brief summary of what the SCA is all about, from my perspective! It's only very brief. There is so much more in-depth about each area, but this is a broad overview.


~Aranwen Ridhelic, Chatelaine for the Barony of Iron Mountain
(Called Aranwen of Willow Ford)

A Welsh woman from around 1200....

... I now have received the paint, and picked up some fabric.... oh yay, ready to get started on the next phase, soon.....

So, I had some oranges leftover from the goodies I started preparing tonight (pictures once they're done...). So I decided to start trying to prepare some candied orange peels again!  Except with orange peels this time, and not lemon.  Hah.  I guess I'd better start myself a reminder timer so I don't forget them EVERY NIGHT for NINE DAYS, now...... yeesh!

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.
=====================

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.