The Dragon's Tongue

The Dragon's Tongue

Newsletter of the Shire of Sterlynge Vayle

Seneschal:

     Lord Robert O'Connor

Exchequer:

     Dame George Anne

Herald:

     Lord Robert O'Connor

Chatelaine:

     Lady Briant of Glamorgan

Arts & Sciences:

     Kayley of the Vayle

Chronicler:

     Lady Briant of Glamorgan

Knight Marshal:

     Sir Magnus Tindal

Fencing Marshal:

     Chernislava

Archery Marshal:

     Lady Mariana

Yout Marshal:

     Olaf

Webmistress:

     Ravyn

Calender of events

Within Sterlynge Vayle:

            October 10 – Walton Demo

            January 16 – Sterlynge Schola

Recurring Dates in the Shire:

            First Sunday – Business Meeting – Robert and Kayley's 6-8pm

            Second Sunday is the A&S Meeting at Robert and Kayley's

            Fourth Sunday is a “Stitch and Bitch”

            Thursdays – fight practice – contact Sir Tindal

            Sundays – 3-6pm – Fight Practice in Walton. Contact Olaf

Æthelmearc Events:

            October 3-4 – Queen's Rapier – Sunderoak

            October 17 – Fall Crown Tourney – Coppertree

            October 24 – Autumn Collegium – Beau Fleuve

            October 31 – Aethelmeac Academy – Sylvan Glen

            November 7 – Wickerman – Blackstone Mtn.

            November 7 – Baronial Investiture – Endless Hills

            November 14 – Hallowtide – Blackwater

            November 14 – Vikings on the River - Riversedge

From the Chatelaine

Well, here we are again!

We have an upcoming demo in October at the Walton Harvest Festival. Please see the full notice later in this issue! Your help for this demo is greatly appreciated.

I would love to have more handouts and take away items and children's activities this year for demos. If you have an idea for this, or even a coloring book I could borrow to make a few copies from please let me know!

 Recurring articles

UPON MY CHOPPING BLOCK -

a mad chefs view of the S.C.A.

By Perote Gormal Campbell

“In a jam over Jelly terms”

Compote, Jam, Jelly, Marmalade, Preserve?

Most people are at a loss for the difference between them. Its actually quite simple.

Compote is a dessert. Its usually made of whole fruit pieces in a simple syrup. It is not gelatinous like the others. Compote also refers to things like baby food if the fruit is cooked until broken down, but that’s really a French concept. Apple sauce is a French compote.

Jam consists of both juice and fruite pieces. If you find bumps as your trying to spread it with a knife its probably a jam.  Its usually processed by mixing fruit flesh with sugar and water and extracting the pectin. Jams are usually softer then jelly and not so “clear”.

Jelly- In the US we use this term interchangeably with jam although they are very different. Jelly must be strained so you get the crystal clear appearance similar to mint jelly. Technically this makes pepper jelly a jam but I’m not going to argue this point, its just a fact like the fruit /vegetable debate over strawberries. If you like seeds in your jelly, its not to me to insist it’s a jam. (Anyone really want to strain out all the blueberry seeds in blueberry jelly?)

Marmalade is a sweet jelly like product with peel added.  Or in some cases a savory marmalade may be made of product like tomatoes but again that’s a British concept not commonly found in the US.

Break out your pint jars and lets get cooking….

       ½ cup chopped hot peppers ( I use jalapeño, habenero, and scotch bonnet mixed)

       ½ cup chopped sweet peppers ( black beauty, orange, yellow, or green)

       1 ½ cups vinegar    

       6 oz certo brand pectin

Combine peppers and vinegar in non reactive pan. Boil 7 minutes and remove from heat.

Add pectin and return to heat 7 minutes. Remove from heat and skim.

Fill ½ pint sterilized jars and seal as directed.

Baaaad news for the shire!

Celts have moved in, eating tons of oatmeal, blaring their bagpipes, and keeping our sheep on edge!

Why not submit an article on alternative uses for our woolly denizens so their tartan clad clan members can move along already?

ASK STERLING DRAGON

Sterling -

     Mommy says I can't bring my gameboy to events. What did kids play with back when you were little?

Thanks you

    Short on batteries in Binghamton

Dear Short:

Kids played with Rocks! And Dirt!  Yes... rocks and dirt my child... rocks and dirt. Oh, those were the good ole days.... we'd heat those rocks till they exploded. We'd scratch rings in the earth and whoever's rock exploded the furthest won. 

I rather expect that you are more interested in what young humans did for fun and not what draconian hatchlings did. A lot of that answer would depend on what your parents did. For some children they followed in their parents footsteps and worked in the fields or were made apprentices to learn a trade.

Those of noble birth were sometimes educated (well, the boys were, many of the girls were not). Things such as weaponry and defense were sometimes taught to young men, and the girls often learned different fiber arts – knitting, embroidery, and the like.

Games played were often things like chess, and nine men morris. But this is the Society for CREATIVE ANACHRONISM.  We can take a bit of license with this.  Some things that I've seen kids playing with at events:

Coloring books of knights, castles, and dragons

Castle Lego sets

Puppets

Chess

Checkers (the current game is based on a medieval game)

Hope that this gives you some ideas!

Cheers!

Easy Ink by Domina Despina de la Braşov

Part 3

And now a little bit on walnuts:

Walnuts belong to the walnut family, Juglandaceae. The scientific name for the English walnut is Juglans regia. The black walnut is J. nigra, and the butternut is J. cinerea.  How’s that?  Not many people realize that butternut trees are in the walnut family. The color, butternut, is actually derived from this branch of the walnut family.  The husks make a lovely yellowish leading into gray dye/ink from which we now use the name of the tree for its color.

The J. nigra (black walnut) is the walnut tree that most of us have access to here in the US.  It spits lots of thick husked nuts down on us every fall (it’s called fall for a reason).  The juglans produced by walnut trees are what make it ideal for ink making.  This is the substance that makes those husks so undesirable by squirrels and insects – it is also what makes those husks so wanted by ink makers.

J.regia (English walnut) also can be used to make ink.  However, the J.nigra (black walnut) is the more widespread of the two in the US and produces a darker ink. 

So how does one go about making ink?

 There are a lot of methods; most of them are fall over stupid easy.  I’ll give you some of my methods and then some recipes from period.

Walnut ink:

There are many ways to make walnut ink. If you’re going to make walnut ink, the plastic gloves and apron are really necessary or your hands (and clothes) will become a lovely shade of sepia.

Place black walnuts, husks and all, in a plastic bucket.  Let it sit, for weeks, months, possibly years.  Open the bucket.  Strain the stuff inside.  Keep the liquid, straining it several times to get the big pieces of stuff out.  You can add vinegar to this, and salt if you wish, as mold preventative.  You’ve got ink.

Place black walnut husks (you really only need the husks) in a pot with some water.  If the pot is made of iron and will rust, that’s okay too – the ink should be darker if you do this, but you can also make this in a porcelain or aluminum pan.  Let this sit for a week or two.  Strain.  Salt and vinegar are always optional.  You’ve got ink

Place black walnut husks (see a pattern here?) in a pot with some water.  Boil for one hour minimum.  Strain.  If you don’t like the color, put the glop that you strained out back into the pan and boil them some more. Strain.  Salt and vinegar if you wish. You’ve got ink

Do number 3 but add some rusty nails or just some plain ole’ rust to the mix.  This should produce a slightly darker ink.  The rust interacts with the juglens to make the ink darker. I have never achieved a true black with walnut, only some very dark shades of brown.  I don’t know anyone who has achieved a black with walnut.

Rather than using water, you can use wine or a small beer.  This will help the ink to ‘stick’ to the paper.  This is a problem usually not found with walnut ink, as it ‘bites’ the paper pretty well.  However, for using walnut ink on parchment of any kind, you must use ink that has been prepared with wine, small beer, or has a bit of honey added to it.  My experience with walnut ink on parchment is that it doesn’t like it so much without some type of gum.  Pergemanata, BTW, *hates* walnut ink, in my experience.

For gall inks:

Begin with several galls, number depends on size of gall and how much ink you want to make.  Break these into pieces.  Place them into a pan (either cast iron, for added iron input, or porcelain) and cover with water or wine.  Add rusty nails or plain rust to the pan.  Boil for about an hour.  Stir it up, try a bit on paper, if you don’t like it or it’s too thin; boil it further.

For secret inks:

I usually write with lemon juice and then hold the paper to a candle or on a hot pan bottom to get the ink to show.  I just don’t care for onion smell.

For pomegranate ink:

I follow the recipe in the period inks section below or:

Take two fresh pomegranates.  Eat the yummy insides.  Place the rinds in a porcelain pot and cover with water.  Boil until this is reduced nearly 2/3. Add small beer (small beer is better for this, light beer works too, dark beer is not recommended) until your rinds are nearly covered.  Boil some more, until it’s reduced to about half of what you had before you added the beer.  Strain it through a fine linen cloth while it’s still very hot. Let it cool, add some warm water to get the consistency right. (Here’s where having a scientist husband comes in handy) add some potassium hydroxide (aka Sal Alkalai, aka caustic potash, aka lye) until the color is a golden brown, as the original recipe says.  I think this ink is pretty myself.  I basically follow the original recipe (in the section that follows) but since I am using fresh rinds and not dried, I use more liquid and boil the heck out of them!  BTW, don’t even be tempted to taste this before you put the potassium hydroxide into it; it’s nasty! And don’t even think of tasting it after you put that stuff in.

Announcements of general interest

Walton Demo – October 10

We have been invited to Demo at the Walton Harvest festival on Saturday October 10, 2009. This is the same event that we did last year on Columbus day weekend. A couple of heavy fighers would be helpful as well as the Shire Demo boards. I would also request any Fencers to attend if there is a Fencing Marshall available for this date. I also anticipate coverage by the local Public Access Television.

Site: Walton Fairgrounds

Time: 10AM-4PM 9AM if you can help to set up

Fee: No Charge for Entertainment

Directions: Take best route to Delaware Street in Walton,NY. Turn onto Bridge Street. Turn right onto Stockton Ave., the fairground entrance is on the right.

Vendor space is available at reasonable rates but no outside fund raising is allowed. This event benefits the American Cancer Society.

YIS,

Olaf

The Legal Stuff

New issues will be published on the Tuesday following the regular business meeting.

If you need a new membership, or to renew, we no longer provide a written copy in the digital version of the news letter. However membership may be obtained at the following site.

Online membership form

Don't worry you can find our "Electric Pavilion" at

 The Official Sterlynge Vayle Website

It has all the materials you may need to locate, communicate with, and support the shire.

Sterlynge Vayle is a shire which resides in the Kingdom of Aethelmearc

Which is a group within the  Society For Creative Anachronism

We are nestled between

the  East Kingdom

and the  MIdrealm

Our highest traffic day for individual ip adresses was march 25th at 25 users.