Last weekend was Ursulmas, an SCA event organized by our barony, but attended by people from the entire kingdom. It's probably the most public-facing event of the year, intended to foster interest in Medieval times.
The husband and I volunteered to help with the Ursulwick Village, which is a series of vignettes showing examples of historical life. As part of this, there's a kitchen area, a small farm, a garden, and a dining hall.
For the display, we spent the two weeks or so before the event making a prop stove out of two-by-twos and styrofoam insulation. Very pleased with how it came out:
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| Maestra Fiamma provided the other bits -- firewood, pots, standing portion, etc. We were actually getting people walking up to it and touching it to see if it was real brick! |
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| Another part of the kitchen area -- can you see the rubber chicken? The table in the front area there held Maestra Fiamma's almond milk making demo -- we had raw almonds, a bowl of hot water (soak them in this to free the skins), and a mortar and pestle to crush the almonds. My kids each spent some time working the mortar and pestle or skinning the almonds. |
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| The barn and rose garden area -- this area was specifically set up to provide a nice photo opportunity. |
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| Everyone look at the camera at once, and not look miserable? Difficulty rating is pretty high. |
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| Taking a break to play around :) |
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| The husband, discussing the quern he was demonstrating. This viking-style hand quern is family-sized, and was made by another SCA member. Historically, this quern would be worked by the youngest children, and for long parts of the day that's exactly what my kids did. It was pretty funny watching my two little boys squabble over who did what, and what order things should be done in, etc. When they were sorted out and working as a team, they were a pretty good flour-making machine. As you can tell from the photo, by the end of the weekend my husband was well-covered in flour. |
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| Saffron, playing around with part of the quern demo -- this is a piece that shows how the grooves on the interior sides of the rocks grind the grain into smaller pieces. |
