Museum Visit: Renaissance Table Settings

Last weekend we returned to the Bard Graduate Center Gallery for their “Setting the Table” exhibit, which featured period books and artifacts focused on two aspects of upper-class formal dining: one side of the gallery featured cutlery and carving guides, while the other exhibited fine linens and elaborate folding techniques.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was more drawn to the knives and kitchen-related texts, while Alienor has spent the last week figuring out how to replicate some of the complex linen folds in paper. Continue reading Museum Visit: Renaissance Table Settings

Welcome to Our Pennsic Kitchen

A bunch of people are camping with Østgarðr at Pennsic for the first time this year, and it’s been a few years since any of us did this, so I thought it would be useful to write up some notes about one aspect of camp life that might be of interest to others: our kitchen.

The Østgarðr encampment does not have a camp kitchen or a formal meal plan, but it does have a tradition of generous households and communal meals which everyone in camp is welcome to share.

But before I get to that, let’s begin with a bit of background information for folks who are new to Pennsic. Continue reading Welcome to Our Pennsic Kitchen